Progressives Lose on the $15 Minimum-Wage (And Why They Did)

The past several weeks on Capitol Hill have shown minor fissures between the Biden administration and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Way past the honeymoon phase for President Joseph R. Biden, the progressive wing of the DNC has pushed the Biden administration, as well as the rest of the party, to enact liberal policies with their majorities in the House and a razor-thin majority in the Senate, irrespective of the GOP’s willingness to cooperate. The past several weeks in Biden’s first 100 days as president, however, reveal policies and stances that have become recent thorns in the flesh of the progressive wing. 

The recent U.S. airstrike of Iranian-backed militias in Syria drew the ire of many progressives and a few moderates within the DNC, and the reopening of child migrant facilities at the Mexican border has drawn criticism from progressive firebrands like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). But the progressives’ annoyance with the Biden administration, and perhaps with the other moderate members of the DNC, has reached apogee over the issue of the minimum wage. 

The parliamentarian for the U.S. Senate (a nonpartisan and unelected arbiter of the Senate’s rules and procedures), Elizabeth MacDonough, nixed the Democrats’ push to add the minimum-wage increase to the latest $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package. McDonough stated that the proposed minimum-wage increase doesn’t meet the requirements of reconciliation, a type of legislation that allows a majority party (in this case, the DNC) to pass heavy legislation with only a simple majority of 51-50. 

The White House expressed disappointment yet acceptance with McDonough’s decision, but progressive figures such as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MI) have called for the parliamentarian to be removed, and key progressive groups and figures have put pressure on Vice-President Kamala Harris to utilize her power as the presider of the Senate to overrule the parliamentarian and add the minimum-wage hike to the COVID-19 relief package.  

For progressive Democrats, the $15 minimum-wage increase is a vital issue — one that Biden himself embraced as a campaign promise early in 2019, and one that helped spur progressives to support Biden on Election Day. The bold policies that progressives have been championing are now meeting the blocks of the current political situation on Capitol Hill. 

The razor-thin Democratic majority in the Senate requires every Democratic senator to walk completely in-step to pass any significant legislation, giving centrists Democrats like West Virginia’s Sen. Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Sen. Kyrsten Sinema the power to decide the bills that do or don’t get passed through the Senate. Both senators have expressed disapproval of the proposed minimum-wage hike (with Sen. Sinema giving a thumbs-down to an added minimum-wage amendment à la her late predecessor, Sen. John McCain) giving the White House pause and reluctance to go nuclear and bypass the Senate parliamentarian since the Senate Democrats aren’t locked in-step. 

If the entire affair with the stimulus package has revealed anything about the reality of the Democrats on Capitol Hill, it’s that while the progressives can post, retweet and mobilize the activists, when it comes to passing legislation through to the White House, it’s the centrists who ultimately have the final say.

Progressives are unlikely to abandon Biden and the DNC anytime soon; the GOP has all but fully embraced the legacy of Former President Donald Trump, as evidenced the president’s appearance in person and in form of a golden statue at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held in Orlando in late February. The threat of Trumpism for progressives is still very much real, and a weakened DNC will not do them any favors come midterm elections, let alone 2024. 

Racial equality protests during the summer of 2020 (Kalea Morgan | Unsplash)

The fact that a minimum wage increase is a popular idea in both liberal and some conservative circles shows the reality of the U.S.’s current economic moment, the populism fueling both political parties and significantly, the success of progressives in pushing the issue of the minimum-wage hike in the forefront of public dialogue. The relief package passed through the Senate, and while it’s considered a win for the Democrats, the conversation about a minimum-wage hike will have to be pushed back further than expected for progressives. In the meantime, the progressive groups and the figures they coalesce around will likely do what they do best: organize, protest, tweet, take up interview requests—all to change public perceptions and rally support for their causes.