Four Democratic House members, Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), Lateefah Simon (CA-12), and Analilia Mejia (NJ-11), introduced the Living Wage for All Act on April 28, proposing to raise the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour.
The bill is backed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a coalition of more than 100 organizations. Large employers would have until 2031 to comply, while smaller employers would have until 2038. After that, the minimum wage would adjust periodically to two-thirds of the national median wage, currently around $31 an hour.
The legislation is unlikely to pass with Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress. However, the economic damage caused by a forced multiplication of the minimum wage would be staggering.
The federal minimum wage has stood at $7.25 since 2009. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly 82,000 workers currently earn at that floor, approximately 0.05% of the 170 million-person U.S. labor force, or about one worker in every two thousand. To raise wages for that population, every employer and consumer in the country would absorb the cost.
Proponents claim the bill would benefit millions more, pointing to BLS data showing 760,000 workers earn below the standard minimum wage. That figure is misleading. Those workers are tipped employees, legally paid $2.13 an hour under a separate federal provision on the assumption that tips make up the difference. This is a legal carve-out, not exploitation.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook reports the median hourly wage for waiters and waitresses, including tips, was $16.23 in May 2024, more than double the standard minimum wage. Tipped workers who found the arrangement unprofitable could leave for minimum-wage jobs, which are plentiful. The market already corrects for this. The actual universe of workers this bill targets is 82,000.
The cost impact on prices can be modeled mathematically under explicit assumptions: all affected workers currently earn $7.25 an hour, wages rise to $25 an hour, employers pass 100% of the increase to consumers, and no automation or headcount reductions occur. This produces a ceiling estimate, not a prediction.
Hellbound and Down 