Rashida Tlaib calls for a minimum wage of $18 to $20
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) called for a minimum wage of $18 to $20 on Sunday, an increase over the $15 minimum wage bill passed by House lawmakers Thursday.
Rashida Tlaib
Tlaib spoke at an event in Detroit supporting One Fair Wage, an organization that lobbies for restaurant workers to be paid the federal minimum wage for nontipped workers, according to a local Fox affiliate.
Tlaib criticized the federally mandated minimum wage for tipped employees, which is $2.13 per hour.
“Think about that for one minute. People cannot live on those kinds of wages. We can’t allow people to be living off of tips and relying on tipped wages,” Tlaib said.
She added that the $15 minimum wage should be adjusted, calling out America Rising, a Republican political action committee that was at the event.
“By the way, when we started it, it should have been $15. Now I think it should be $20. Make sure America Rising hears that. It should be $20 an hour — $18 to $20 an hour at this point,” Tlaib said.
The House Rep then made a bizarre reference to inflation, stating that the prices of everyday goods have already gone up for Americans while addressing critics of a higher minimum wage who argue that such an action would drive up daily costs.
“They say all of this is going to raise the costs, but I can tell you milk has gone up,” Tlaib said. “Eggs have gone up. Everything has gone up. The cost of food has gone up. The cost of a lot of things that we need has gone up already.”
A recent study by the Congressional Budget Office found that raising the minimum wage to $15 would increase wages on the surface for the affected population, but as many as 3.7 million fewer people would be employed (or more conservatively, 1.3 million).
