Rep. Ilhan Omar's Bill Would Raise Minimum Wage To $17 By 2028

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Ilhan Omar on Wednesday introduced a bill in the U.S. House that would raise the federal minimum wage to $17 by 2028.

The "Raise the Wage" Act has dozens of co-sponsors in both the U.S. House and Senate, including Minnesota's Rep. Angie Craig and Vermont's Sen. Bernie Sanders.

"It is criminal that billionaire CEOs continue to rake in record pay and profits while the minimum wage has not been raised since the George W. Bush Administration," Omar said in a statement.

"No one should live in poverty in the United States of America. Yet the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a poverty wage. As Minnesotans deal with the rising cost of basic necessities like rent, it is long past time we raised the minimum wage to a livable wage of $17 an hour."

The current version of the bill would raise the federal minimum wage by $7.25 to $17 by 2028. It would also:

• Tie the minimum wage to median wage growth.
• Phase out the subminimum wage for tipped workers
• Phase out the subminimum wage for youth workers
• End subminimum wage certificates for workers with disabilities

"The $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage is a starvation wage. It must be raised to a living wage – at least $17 an hour," said Sanders.

"In the year 2023 a job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality and record-breaking corporate profits, we can no longer tolerate millions of workers being unable to feed their families because they are working for totally inadequate wages. Congress can no longer ignore the needs of the working class of this country. The time to act is now."