The Fair Wage Act of 2023 would replace the current fixed federal minimum wage with a regional minimum wage system based on each area's cost of living. The bill calculates minimum wages for metropolitan areas and non-metropolitan regions by taking a percentage of the national average hourly wage for private sector workers and adjusting it based on regional price differences, with the percentage starting at 40 percent and increasing to 50 percent over two years. The wage would be indexed to increase every three years to ensure it keeps pace with inflation. The bill also adjusts the minimum wage for tipped employees to 30 percent of the regional minimum wage and changes the youth minimum wage from a fixed amount to two-thirds of the regional minimum wage. The legislation would take effect three months after enactment and would affect millions of workers across the country, with the biggest changes likely in lower cost-of-living areas that would see wage increases and higher cost-of-living areas that might see smaller adjustments than under previous proposals.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.