<p><img src="https://static1.businessinsider.com/image/6008adc8db847c001918bf5f-2400/GettyImages-1297438755.jpg" border="0" alt="Bernie Sanders mittens" data-mce-source="Drew Angerer/Staff/Getty Images"></p><p></p><bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p>The Senate unanimously passed a Republican amendment on Thursday that seeks to prevent Democrats from doing something they never wanted to do: double the minimum wage to $15 an hour during the pandemic.</p><p>In effect, Democrats, as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, joined with Republicans to drive the fact home. </p><p>Rather than double the federal minimum wage before the pandemic ends, President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are proposing to raise it gradually to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/minimum-wage-increase-15-stimulus-pandemic-biden-congress-2021-2">$15 an hour by 2025</a> as part of their <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-stimulus-senate-democrats-kick-off-votearama-without-gop-2021-2">$1.9 trillion stimulus package</a>.</p><p>The amendment from Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, appeared to be an effort to miscast Democrats' positionto enact a $15 minimum wage "during a global pandemic"and put centrist Democrats on the spot to highlight <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-stimulus-congress-biden-minimum-wage-2021-2">divides within the party</a> on the wage hike plan.</p><p>Specifically, the amendment would grant the chair of the Senate Budget Committee the right to nix a wage increase as part of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stimulus-mcconnell-slams-democrats-over-reconciliation-2017-tax-cut-2021-2">reconciliation process</a>a parliamentary maneuver that allows the Democratic-controlled Senate to pass legislation in the upper chamber with a simple majority instead of the 60 votes usually required.</p><p>Sanders, an independent from Vermont and chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said during the floor debate that he would do "everything I can to make sure that a $15 minimum wage is included in this reconciliation bill." He rejected Republican framing that Democrats are seeking to double the wage before the pandemic is over.</p><p>"It was never my intent to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour immediately during the pandemic," Sanders said. "My legislation gradually increases the minimum wage to $15 an hour over a 5 year period, and that is what I believe we ought to do."</p><p>Sanders put the amendment on a non-recorded voice vote in a move that likely deflected criticism of his drive to increase the minimum wage.</p><p>"We need to end the crisis of starvation wages in Iowa and across the United States," he added. </p><p>A senior Democratic aide, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, argued that Republicans had bungled the effort to force moderate Democrats to take a politically difficult vote.</p><p>"This isn't Bernie's first rodeo," the aide said. "No one has to take a tough vote on a messaging amendment and we can still try to pass minimum wage through the reconciliation bill."</p><p>It remains unclear whether Democrats will be successful in approving the minimum wage increase through the strict budgetary rules governing the reconciliation process.</p><p>The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour was last raised in 2009.</p><p>Earlier this month, Ernst spoke out against including a wage increase as part of any stimulus package, saying such "<a href="https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1356686346224611328">liberal priorities</a>" would hurt small businesses.</p><p>Ben Zipperer, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-a-15-minimum-wage-would-mean-businesses-workers-employment-2021-1">told Insider</a> such an impact would be minimal, at worst, and arguably beneficial to businesses as well as workers, with higher wages reducing costly employee turnover.</p><p>Despite Republican opposition, however, raising the minimum wage is popular among voters. According to a <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail'ReleaseID=3688">recent poll</a> from Quinnipiac University, 61% of Americans support Democrats' effort to hike it to $15 an hour.</p><p>Twenty states have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/every-state-raising-its-minimum-wage-in-2021-15-2021-1">already raised</a> their own minimum wage since 2021 started.</p><p><em>Have a news tip' Email this reporter: <a href="mailto:cdavis@insider.com">cdavis@insider.com</a></em></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-senate-rejects-raising-15-minimum-wage-during-pandemic-2021-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-symphony-seas-worlds-largest-cruise-ship-deals-with-waste-2020-3">How waste is dealt with on the world's largest cruise ship</a></p>
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