Senator Elizabeth Warren made a case for increasing the minimum wage during last week's Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Hearing, the Huffington Post reported.
She cited a study that suggested the federal minimum wage would be nearly $22 an hour today if it kept up with increased rates in worker productivity.
"If we started in 1960 and we said that as productivity goes up, that is as workers are producing more, then the minimum wage is going to go up the same," Senator Warren said. "And if that were the case then the minimum wage is going up the same. And if that were the case then the minimum wage today would be about $22 an hour. With a minimum of $7.25 an hour, what happened to the other $14.75? It sure didn't go to the worker."
Senator Warren underscored the result of a recent study, showing flat minimum wage growth over the past 40-plus years coiciding with surging inequality across a number of economic indicators.
Warren also indicated that raising the federal minimum wage to over $10 an hour in incremental steps over the next two years would not be as damaging for business, as critics have argued, the Huffington Post reported.
The president called to increase the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour during his State of the Union address.
In 2011, more than 66 percent of Americans surveyed by the Public Religion Research Institute supported raising this figure to $10.
Senator Warren criticized Republicans during the Senate Banking Committee for their apparent holding up (or filibuster) of the nominating process of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray.
"I see nothing here but a filibuster threat against Director Cordray as an attempt to weaken the consumer agency," Senator Warren said "I think the delay in getting him confirmed is bad for consumers, it's bad for small banks, bad for credit unions, for anyone trying to offer an honest product in an honest market.The American people deserve a Congress that worries less about helping big banks and more about helping regular people who have been cheated on mortgages, on credit cards, on student loans and on credit reports."
