US President
Joe Biden will sign an executive order Tuesday
raising the hourly wages of federal government contract workers to $15, a step
towards fulfilling his campaign pledge to raise the minimum wage to the same
level for all employees.
اضافة اعلان
The new order will require "federal contractors to pay
a $15 minimum wage to hundreds of thousands of workers who are working on federal
contracts," the
White House said.
The current minimum wage is $10.95 an hour for these
workers, who are not civil servants but work for the federal government through
contracting firms.
"These workers are critical to the functioning of the
federal government: from cleaning professionals and maintenance workers... to
nursing assistants who care for the nation's veterans, to cafeteria and other
food service workers who ensure military members have healthy and nutritious
food to eat, to laborers who build and repair federal infrastructure," the White House said.
However, they will still have to wait a short while, since
the measure will apply only from March 30, 2022 to all new contracts and then
gradually to each contract renewal.
Hourly wages will then be increased each year based on
inflation.
The executive order also harmonizes the minimum wage for all
federal contract workers, removing lower wages for workers who receive tips
that bring their salaries up to the minimum wage level, currently at $7.65 per
hour.
The White House insisted that the wage hike will not be
accompanied by increased cost to the taxpayer, and even said the move will
improve productivity and reduce turnover as well as related costs.
And it said the move will ensure that "hundreds of
thousands of workers no longer have to work full time and still live in
poverty."
The measure is designed to encourage employers to follow
suit. Raising the minimum wage for all workers in the country to $15 by 2025
from the current $7.25 an hour was one of Biden's key campaign pledges.
It was in the first iteration of his economic stimulus
package to help the country recover from the coronavirus pandemic, but had to
be scrapped in the Senate in order for the rest of the plan to pass.
Several American retail giants have nevertheless already
raised their minimum wages to reach or exceed $15 an hour, including Costco,
Target and Amazon.
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