Hirono, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Raise the Minimum Wage to $17 by 2028, Benefitting Millions of Workers Across America

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) joined Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), 28 colleagues in the Senate, and nearly 150 colleagues in the House of Representatives in introducing legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage to $17 by 2028.

Estimated to benefit nearly 28 million workers, or 19 percent of the working population, the Raise the Wage Act of 2023 would raise the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour over five years, eliminate the tipped sub-minimum wage over seven years, eliminate the sub-minimum wage for workers with disabilities over five years, and eliminate the sub-minimum wage for youth workers over seven years.

Over the last 50 years, $50 trillion in wealth has been redistributed from the bottom 90 percent of America to the top 1 percent. Today, the value of the current federal minimum wage, $7.25 per hour, is the lowest it has been since 1956 and has declined by nearly 28 percent since it was last increased in 2009. While approximately 5 million tipped workers in the U.S. depend on tips for nearly three-quarters of their income, the tipped sub-minimum wage has remained stagnant at just $2.13 per hour since 1991. The current median wage for approximately 120,000 workers with disabilities is just $3.50 per hour.

Meanwhile, across every state in the country, a living wage for a worker in a family with two working adults and one child is greater than $17 per hour, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI) Family Budget Calculator. However, nearly 30 percent of workers in the U.S., over 44 million people, make less than $17 per hour. Many of these low-wage workers face persistent economic insecurity, struggling to put food on the table and afford basic necessities, including housing, health care, and childcare.

American workers are among the most productive in the world. Yet, in industry after industry, the share of revenues going to wages has dropped, while the share going to profits and stock buybacks has soared. In fact, if the minimum wage had increased with productivity over the last 50 years, it would be $23 an hour today. If it had increased at the same rate that Wall Street employee bonuses have increased, it would be more than $42 an hour.

In addition to Senator Hirono, Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), John Fetterman (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) cosponsored this legislation.

The full text of the legislation is available here.

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