WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to increase the country’s federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025, with mixed reaction from lawmakers from Indiana.
Of the nine U.S. representatives from Indiana, votes were split between Democrats and Republicans.
Republicans James Baird, Jim Banks, Susan Brooks, Larry Bucshon, Trey Hollingsworth, Greg Pence and Jackie Walorski all voted against the measure.
Democrats André Carson and Peter J. Visclosky joined the majority in voting to raise the minimum wage.
The bill would gradually increase the minimum wage until it peaks at $15 an hour. It would also tie any future changes to the median workers’ pay. If wages increase, so does the minimum wage. The bill may have passed the House, but it is likely dead in the Senate with a Republican majority.
An increase of minimum wage to $15 an hour would boost the pay for as many as 27 million workers but cost as many as 1.3 million jobs by 2025, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The nonpartisan office said the minimum wage increase would also bring about 1.3 million workers, half of them children, out of poverty.
In a statement, Bucshon criticized the bill as “short-sighted.”
“The irreversible damage done by this bill could result in an estimated 3.7 million Americans losing their jobs and move our economy backwards and be a crushing blow to small businesses,” he said. “Instead of focusing on minimum wage policies, we should instead be focused on policies that maximize economic opportunities for Americans.”
On the state level, three proposals to increase Indiana’s minimum wage went nowhere in the 2019 legislative session.
