House Readies To Pass Stimulus After Minimum-Wage Hike Falls Flat

Large corporations may not legally have to increase the minimum wage, but Democrats seemingly want to come up with some incentive for them to do so anyway.

Or as explained by MSN: "Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Friday announced Democrats' 'Plan B' to raise the minimum wage after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that an earlier proposal from House Democrats to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour did not meet special budgetary rules."

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.

"As chair of the Finance Committee, I've been working on a 'plan B' that would make big companies pay for mistreating their workers," Wyden said in a statement. "My plan would impose a 5 percent penalty on a big corporations' total payroll if any workers earn less than a certain amount. That penalty would increase over time."

Wyden added the plan would include safeguards to keep companies from avoiding the penalty by outsourcing jobs.

"For example, if a profitable mega corporation like Walmart fires a store's security guard and replaces him with a contractor who makes far less, my proposal would still require that Walmart pays a penalty," Wyden said.

The House is set to pass another stimulus after the proposed minimum-wage hike was dealt its latest blow.

"Friday’s vote in the House will bring most Americans one step closer to receiving $1,400 relief payments and move action to the Senate, where disagreements among Democrats over the minimum wage had been the biggest obstacle to turning the pandemic relief plan into law," Bloomberg reported.