WASHINGTON DC – Wednesday’s vote in the U.S. Senate to block opening debate on legislation raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour saw Michigan’s candidates for the U.S. Senate on opposite sides with Democratic U.S. Rep. Gary Peters favoring the increase and Republican Terri Land saying the measure goes too far.
On a mostly party-line vote, the U.S. Senate fell six votes short of the 60 needed under its rules to open debate.
In a statement, Land spokesperson Heather Swift said in a statement while Land favors increasing the federal minimum wage from its current $7.25 an hour, going to $10.10 is too much. Swift did not indicate how big an increase Land would support.
“Low income and entry level workers have been hit the hardest by President Obama and Congressman Peters’ policies,” Swift said. “While there is room to increase the minimum wage, the proposal on the Senate floor would do more harm than good, causing up to a million Americans to lose their jobs in an already tough economy.”
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that going to a $10.10 minimum hourly wage would reduce employment by 500,000. But it also hedged and said there was a two-thirds chance the decrease could range from “very slight” to as much as 1 million.
But Peters’ spokesperson, Haley Morris, said Peters would have voted for the legislation.
“As the son of World War II veteran and public school teacher and a nurse’s aide, and as someone who worked in business for more than 20 years, Gary believes that anyone who works hard and plays by the rules deserves a fair shot. That’s why Gary supports raising the minimum wage to strengthen our middle class and those aspiring to get there,” she said in a statement. “By opposing a bipartisan effort to raise the federal minimum wage today, Ms. Land just gave Michigan women and middle class families one more reason why they cannot trust her in the U.S. Senate.”
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