Mountain State Times

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is aspiring to amend the coronavirus stimulus package to mandate an $11 federal minimum wage, $4 less than the hourly minimum proposed by President Joe Biden.

"I would amend it to $11,” Manchin said on Feb. 22, according to The Epoch Times. “We can do $11 in two years and be in a better position than they’re going to be with $15 in five years.”

Manchin, whose vote is pivotal for the package to pass via budget reconciliation without Republican support, indicated that he will not approve the $15 hike. 

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is also not in support of the $15 minimum wage.

“The minimum wage provision is not appropriate for the reconciliation process. It is not a budget item. And it shouldn’t be in there,” Sinema told Politico on Feb. 12, The Epoch Times reported. 

It is however not clear if a federal minimum wage hike could be approved via the budget reconciliation process.

A report by the Congressional Budget Office shows that a hike of the federal minimum wage to $15 would result in 1.3 million job losses whereas an increase to $12 would result in the loss of 300,000 jobs. A study on the $11 minimum was not done.

CNBC-SurveyMonkey's research showed that one-third of small businesses would have layoffs if the $15 minimum wage comes into effect.

The minimum wage hike is part of a gigantic $1.9 trillion stimulus package, which would bring the first expansion of the Affordable Care Act in a decade, and a refundable child tax credit that would amount to a monthly cash payment to tax-complying families. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, nearly half of the stimulus package has been diverted to issues unrelated to the pandemic.