Bernie Sanders' push to more than DOUBLE the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour

Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed a bill raising the minimum wage by more than $10 on Thursday.

His legislation would enact a $17 minimum wage, up from the $15 he proposed in 2021 and way up from the current $7.25 national minimum wage.     

The Vermont Independent said the committee he chairs, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, would mark up the bill on June 14 and he hoped it would get a full floor vote. 

Twenty-nine states, in addition to Washington, D.C. and Guam have minimum wages higher than $7.25. Average hourly earnings in the U.S. are currently $33.18.

Some 141,000 hourly workers made the federal minimum $7.25 per hour in 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  

Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed a bill raising the minimum wage by more than $10 on Thursday

'If you work 40 to 50 hours a week you should not be living in poverty,' Sanders said in a news conference

Two years ago eight Democrats joined all Republicans in opposing Sanders' $15 minimum wage proposal being included in the American Rescue Plan. He said that a 2023 $17 is equivalent to 2021 $15 because of inflation. 

Sanders noted that 13 states have already approved a $15 minimum wage, including right-leaning Nebraska. 

'This is not a red issue, not a blue issue, it's an American issue,' he said. 

'In the year 2023, in the richest country in the history of the world, nobody should be forced to work for starvation wages. That's not a radical idea. If you work 40-50 hours a week, you should not be living in poverty,' Sanders added.