Referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, and Oversight and Accountability, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
The American Stability Act would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour immediately and then automatically adjust it annually based on either wage growth or inflation, whichever is lower, until it reaches a "stability wage" threshold. After reaching that threshold, the minimum wage would be set to the stability wage each year. The bill would also eliminate the lower minimum wage for workers under 20 and eliminate the tipped minimum wage, requiring all workers to earn at least the full minimum wage. Additionally, the bill would eliminate a special subminimum wage for workers with disabilities and prohibit new employers from obtaining certificates to pay below-minimum wages.
The legislation includes major tax changes that tie income tax brackets to the stability wage, making them adjust automatically each year instead of remaining static. It would add two new income surcharges on high earners: a 3 percent surcharge on income above 25 times the annualized stability wage and a 5 percent surcharge on income above 365 times that wage. The bill would also cap the tax rate for low-income individuals at 24.4 percent of income above a cost-of-living exemption. Finally, it would allow individuals earning up to the cost-of-living wage to retain eligibility for federal means-tested benefit programs without losing assistance based on earned income increases, at least in the first two years. The bill would take effect roughly three months after enactment.
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