House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi promised Thursday the immediate passage of legislation that would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour if Democrats are able to retake control of the House of Representatives next year.
Pelosi was speaking at a press conference along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Bernie Sanders, and other Democratic lawmakers to introduce the Raise the Wage Act of 2017.
“Let’s all join the Fight for 15,” she urged. “And I’ll tell you one thing for sure: if we win the election, in the first 100 hours, we will pass a $15 minimum wage. We’d rather have it now. We’d rather win on the issue than worry about the election.”
“If we have family values, we must raise the minimum wage,” she claimed. “If we care about the growth of our economy, just forgetting individuals, we can’t, but if you just put it in terms of the economy. The economy will never grow to the extent that it must unless we put purchasing power into the hands of America’s working families.”