Livable wages continue to be an important issue among voters, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic, and when it comes to President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, the candidates have widely different approaches to raising incomes.
The federal minimum wage sits at just $7.25 an hour and has not seen an increase since 2009. An employee working a full-time job on a minimum wage salary makes just over $15,000 annually, but according to a study by GoBankingRates, the lowest median living wage rate for a U.S. state is about $58,000 in Mississippi.
When questioned about raising the federal minimum wage, President Trump said he would consider it but prefers to let states dictate increases. According to the president, a strong economy would lift wages and not hurt small business owners.
Biden, on the other hand, has committed to raising the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2026, the amount being part of the demand raised by the #FightFor15. The movement began in New York City in 2012 when more than 200 fast food workers walked out on the job in protest for higher pay.
Critics of a federally mandated increase in the minimum wage agree with the president's view that it would negatively impact small business owners and also would add to job losses, a drop in work hours, and higher prices for consumers.
However, a study by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce contends that a higher minimum wage would actually boost consumer spending and create more jobs.
The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner has stepped down from her role at the agency over Department of Government Efficiency requests.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says her government is not ruling out filing a civil lawsuit against Google if it maintains its stance of calling the stretch of sea between northeastern Mexico and the southeastern United States the “Gulf of America.” Sheinbaum, in her morning press conference on Thursday, said the president’s decree to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico is restricted to the “continental shelf of the United States” because Mexico still controls much of the body of water. “We have sovereignty over our continental shelf,” she said.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
President Donald Trump is hitting foreign steel and aluminum with a 25% tax. If that sounds familiar, it’s because he did pretty much the same thing during
President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. to stop minting pennies. His surprise announcement comes after decades of unsuccessful efforts to phase out the 1-cent coin. Advocates for ditching the penny cite its high production cost and limited utility. Fans of the penny cite its usefulness in charity drives and relative bargain in production costs compared with the nickel. Here's a look at some question surrounding Trump's order.
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down the agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought is the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama created it following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
Brian Bennett, Senior White House correspondent at TIME, discusses Musk's relationship to Donald Trump and how he has such access in the federal government.
