WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order that requires federal contractors to pay their workers at least $15 per hour, eventually including tipped workers. A news release from the White House says it will then be tied to inflation.
That amounts to a $4.05 per hour increase for contract workers making the minimum now, a 37% pay bump. Tipped contract workers would make $7.35 more per hour, which is 96% more than their current rate.
The order would not change the wages for any existing contracts, but it would be required for every contract signed after March 30, 2022. The new tipped minimum wage would not need to take effect until 2024.
The news release says the increases could boost workers' morale and productivity while reducing turnover.
The Associated Press reports the White House staff was unable to give an exact number of workers that would see a pay raise from this, only that it would be hundreds of thousands. There are an estimated 5 million contract workers in the federal government, according to a posting last year for the Brookings Institution by Paul Light, a public policy professor at New York University.
Biden has pushed to establish a $15 hourly minimum wage nationwide for all workers, making it a part of his coronavirus relief package. But the Senate parliamentarian said the wage hike did not follow the budgetary rules that allowed the $1.9 trillion plan to pass with a simple majority, so it was not included in the bill that became law in March.
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