When a vote came up in the Senate over the weekend on a proposed hike of the minimum wage to $15, eight Democrats voted no.
They were Sens. Krysten Sinema of Arizona, Jon Tester of Montana, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Angus King of Maine, Chris Coons and Tom Carper of Delaware — and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Afterward, Manchin said that he believes every member of the Senate still thinks the wage should be raised from the current $7.25 an hour set in 2009 (which, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index [CPI] would be equal $8.98 today).
“There’s not one senator out of 100, not one, that does not want to raise the minimum wage,” Manchin said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Manchin said different cost of living in various areas across the country mean a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work.
“Once we get to $11, then it should be indexed for inflation, so it never becomes a political football again,” Manchin said. He also addressed criticism from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). “We come from two different areas of the country that have different social and cultural needs, [and with] that, you have to respect everybody,” he said.
On ABC’s “This Week,” Manchin elaborated on his views.
“I agree with President Biden when he says, if you go to work every day, you should be above the poverty guidelines. Well, the poverty guidelines, to be above that, if you’re going to work and working full-time, should be $11 base. That should be your base. And then we index it with inflation to make sure it never gets back in this political conundrum we have right now,” he said.
“It shouldn’t be a political football. We do the same thing with Social Security, we index that to make sure that inflation, and make sure that it moves forward with the CPI; we can do the same,” he added.
He also addressed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who has long advocated a rise to $15.
“Now, we have a deal here to be made. If everyone agrees it should be raised, Bernie has chosen $15, and you know what? An awful lot of areas and states have moved to $15. A lot of them moved a lot further than $7.25. There’s very few, I think, if any, are at $7.25. But we need to base — the base of our minimum wage should be above the poverty guideline so you have the respect and dignity of work,” he said.
The senator also complained about the “toxic atmosphere” in Congress today.
“I look for that moderate middle. The common sense that comes with the moderate middle is who I am. That’s what people expect. My state of West Virginia, they know me, they know how I’ve governed. I’ve tried to basically represent them in the best of my ability. These are hard-working, good, commonsense people. That’s what I want and that’s what I keep trying — I try to do,” he said.
“You’ve got to work a little bit harder when we have this toxic atmosphere and the divisions that we have and the tribal mentality. Martha, that’s not to be acceptable. You’ve got to work hard and fight that. Fight against those urges just to cloister in with your group and say, well, this is where I am.”