Minimum Wage Bill Fails to Advance in Senate

As expected, Senate supporters of the Minimum Wage Fairness Act (S. 2223) failed to garner the 60 votes needed to bring the measure to a floor vote without the threat of a filibuster. The legislation – which would have raised the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour in increments over a three-year period and indexed future increases to inflation – was considered a symbolic component of President Obama’s “Opportunity for All” agenda laid out in his Statute of the Union Address. The motion to invoke cloture on the Minimum Wage Fairness Act failed by a vote of 54-42.