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The Raise the Wage Act of 2021 has been introduced in both houses of Congress. The act would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 and phase out the tipped worker minimum wage of $2.13.
The nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute (EPI) notes that the federal minimum wage has not changed for a decade the longest it has remained the same since the minimum wage was established in 1938. According to the EPI, the increase would affect some 32 million workers, representing 21% of the U.S. workforce. Not only would the change overwhelmingly benefit essential workers, it would work to close the racial wealth gap; EPI says that 31% of Black workers and 26% of Latino workers would get a pay raise if the higher minimum wage takes effect.