Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced on Tuesday that he will introduce legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 from $7.25 in January 2026.
The bill reflects Hawley’s populist attitudes as he tries to tilt the party away from its yearslong opposition to raising the federal minimum wage. He previously introduced legislation with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) aimed at capping credit card interest rates at 10%.
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A different Vermont senator, Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), has signed on for the minimum wage bill.
“For decades, working Americans have seen their wages flatline. One major culprit of this is the failure of the federal minimum wage to keep up with the economic reality facing hard-working Americans every day,” Hawley said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner. “This bipartisan legislation would ensure that workers across America benefit from higher wages.”
The minimum wage has not risen from $7.25 an hour since 2009. Twenty-one states have their minimum wages set at $7.25 an hour. Ten states and Washington, D.C. have set their wages at $15 an hour or higher.
“We’re in the midst of a severe affordability crisis, with families in red and blue states alike struggling to afford necessities like housing and groceries,” Welch said in the statement. “A stagnant federal minimum wage only adds fuel to the fire. Every hard-working American deserves a living wage that helps put a roof over their head and food on the table — $7.25 an hour doesn’t even come close.”
The bill would also allow “the federal minimum wage to increase with inflation in subsequent years” after 2026.
The Employment Policies Institute, a conservative think tank that studies employment policies, told the Washington Examiner that it disagreed with the legislation and that it would kill jobs.
“Sen. Hawley should know better,” said Rebekah Paxton, research director at EPI.
“This proposal would more than double the minimum wage and slash over 800,000 jobs. An overwhelming majority of economists agree that drastic minimum wage hikes cut employment, limit opportunities for workers, and shutter businesses. Hawley’s proposal would take similar failed policies like California’s and export them nationwide,” she added.
The Republican Party is largely split on raising the minimum wage. President Donald Trump said last December he would “consider” raising the minimum wage, while others have gone so far as to say it should be repealed.
“If we’re going to take a look at it, we should repeal it,” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) told Business Insider. “I don’t think it should exist.”
Sen. Shelley Moore-Capito (R-WV) said she supported then-Sen. JD Vance’s bill, the “Higher Wages for American Workers Act,” to raise the federal minimum wage to $11 over several years. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Susan Collins (R-ME), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney also supported this. Moore-Capito still said it wasn’t “an area of emphasis.”
“I just don’t see that’s going to be an area of emphasis that we’re going to go to,” she said.
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EPI said its analysis tracks with the Congressional Budget Office, which said in an analysis: in general, “Increasing the federal minimum wage would raise the earnings and family income of most low-wage workers and thus lift some families out of poverty—but doing so would cause other low-wage workers to become jobless, and their family income would fall.”
Hawley tried to tie his bill to the deportations from the Trump administration. “Here’s a simple proposal: MORE deportations for illegals – and higher WAGES for Americans,” he wrote in a post on X.