Congress moves to raise minimum wage to $15, then tie it to inflation
S. 2013 — Higher Wages for American Workers Act of 2025 · Filed by Josh Hawley (R-MO) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 10, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill raises the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour starting January 1 of the year after enactment, then automatically adjusts it each January 1 based on inflation (measured by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers), rounded to the nearest nickel. The bill amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to establish this new floor and indexing mechanism.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a straightforward increase in the federal minimum wage floor and an automatic annual adjustment tied to inflation. No riders, no carve-outs, no hidden provisions detected in the available text.
What the text implies
- Automatic indexing removes the need for future congressional action to maintain wage floor in real terms, shifting power away from legislative gridlock and toward administrative formula.
- Rounding to nearest $0.05 creates predictable wage steps; may reduce employer gaming of wage-setting but also means some years see no increase if inflation is very low.
- CPI-U index (urban wage earners) may not reflect cost-of-living changes in rural or high-cost regions equally, creating geographic disparities in real purchasing power.
- Employers in low-margin sectors (retail, food service, hospitality) may accelerate automation or reduce hours to offset labor cost increases, potentially reducing total employment or hours worked.
Who it affects
Workers earning minimum wage—disproportionately low-income, service-sector, and younger employees—gain direct wage increases and automatic cost-of-living protection. Employers face higher labor costs, but the public benefit (reduced poverty, increased purchasing power, wage floor protection) outweighs the private cost to business.
Who stands to gain
- minimum-wage workers (direct wage increase)
- low-income households (increased purchasing power)
- consumer-facing businesses benefiting from increased demand from wage earners
Named in the bill
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, Secretary of Labor
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Democrats.
- Jun 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jun 10, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2025 to Jun 2025. Those filings disclosed $290,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 28 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Josh Hawley, the sponsor, reported $68,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Service Employees International Union Ctw-clc — $290,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 9, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI scored this bill from its title only — the full text has not been read; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2025 to Jun 2025. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 9, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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