Commentary: Democrats should raise the minimum wage

The newly Democratic Congress faces a lengthy agenda once it’s sworn in on Jan. 3 — reversing cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, reestablishing premium subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans, holding President Donald Trump’s incompetent cabinet members to account, investigating the self-dealing and corruption of this White House, etc., etc. But there is an obvious initial fix for the economic pain suffered by ordinary Americans that falls into the issue of “affordability,” which drove much of the pivot away from Republicans in last week’s midterm voting: raise the federal minimum wage. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker named that reform as “an easy way to start” in advancing the Democrats’ economic agenda during a post-election appearance on CNN. He’s right. The federal minimum has been frozen at $7.25 an hour since June 2009. Accounting for inflation, that figure has shrunk to $4.64 in buying power; putting it another way, if it were adjusted for inflation, it would be $11.33 today.

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