By Dartunorro Clark - NBC News
President Joe Biden will sign an executive order Tuesday that would increase the minimum wage for federal contractors and tip employees who work on government contracts for $ 15 an hour, according to senior administration officials.
The increase of $ 10.95 per hour would begin in January and agencies would have to implement the measure no later than March.
Biden signed a separate order to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour for federal employees.
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The new order also directs federal agencies to increase the tipped hourly minimum wage to $ 15 by 2024 and to ensure that tipped employees working on federal contracts earn the same minimum wage as other employees on federal contracts.
The new order raises the minimum wage to the same level for federal contract workers with disabilities and includes an increase in the cost of living each year beginning in 2022.
The increase is based on a 2015 executive order signed by former President Barack Obama that raised the minimum wage for federal contractors, including tipped workers and workers with disabilities, to its current level.
Biden has made raising the national hourly minimum wage, which has stagnated at $ 7.25 an hour since 2009, a priority
.
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Workers have been pushing for nearly a decade for a national minimum wage of $ 15 an hour that would affect millions of American workers, but changing political winds and a lack of consensus in Congress have made it a challenge.
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The Administration and Senate Democrats withdrew their proposal to include the minimum wage increase in the 1.9 billion euro aid bill for the COVID-19 crisis.
A study released in February by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that raising the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour would lift nearly a million people out of poverty over the next four years, but
also lead to the loss of 1.4 million jobs
, increasing the cumulative budget deficit by 54 billion from 2021 to 2023 and the prices of goods and services.
President Joe Biden in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 31, 2021.REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst / File Photo
A senior Biden administration official was unable to give an exact number of federal contractors who would benefit, forecasting "hundreds of thousands," noting that the number of workers would be small compared to raising the federal minimum wage or minimum wage. state.
The number is "something that is not static, because federal contracts are not static and it will take time to incorporate it into new contracts," the official said.
"These workers are critical to the functioning of the Federal Government
, from cleaning professionals and maintenance workers, to nursing assistants who serve the nation's veterans, cafeteria workers, and other food services ensuring that military members have healthy and nutritious food to eat and the workers who build and repair federal infrastructure, "the official said.
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The Biden Administration official explained that raising wages would not add costs to the government or taxpayers because it would allow "employers to retain top talent and reduce costs associated with hiring, and sites have been found to Training programs reduce absenteeism, lead to higher productivity and lower supervisory costs. "
The official said that to implement the order, the Department of Labor and the Federal Procurement Regulatory Council would have to issue rules to the agencies.
Once developed, they will apply to new contracts, as well as contracts pending renewal, which will be reviewed and revised to include the new minimum wage.