You don't need a high minimum wage for that.

You just need it to be illegal for employers to pay below the minimum wage (on the basis that the difference will be made up for in tips). The minimum wage in the UK is about $11-12 yet we don't really do tipping either, it's not needed because employees actually get that minimum wage (and free healthcare, paid holidays, paid sick leave and paid maternity/paternity leave).

Wow, the more you think about it the more you realise just how much low income employees are screwed over in the US and it's gonna take a lot more than just a higher minimum wage to fix that.

Minimum wage here is $28 an hour for a casual worker. (With casual loading) which is roughly equivalent to $21.28 USD per hour.

That is on top of Universal Healthcare (Which is also cheaper on the taxpayer!) and is one of the best Healthcare systems in the world and we have one of the highest standards of living and more.

Minimum wage is good enough that leaving "tips" for waitresses isn't even a thing.

In saying that... I only get $37 ($28.51 USD) an hour as my base rate and $49 ($37.76 USD) over the weekend or Afternoon/Night period (After 4PM).
But I do get paid in 3 hour chunks even if the job is 15 minutes. Could it be better? Probably pissing up the wall when some people here are earning a fraction of that...

I don't get the fear of a high minimum wage in the USA? Then again, I don't understand the hate against Universal Healthcare that is proven to be far more effective and cheaper and the strict opposition to gun control which also is proven to work.

What does a higher minimum wage actually mean? Well. It's actually simple.
The Government earns more in taxation so it can pay it's debt/bills due to higher wages.
Consumers are able to increase expenditure which drives the economy.
Businesses also see increases in sales rates, so the increase in wages can be offset by higher volume of sales.

Uygur is right. In fact, I would go even further and point out that the polling suggests that the minimum wage increase is popular not only with ideological progressives, but also with self-described moderate voters and independents and even has the support of a large minority of Republicans. At $15 an hour.

I don't think party shills like Sundid and Cyran and Machiavellian understand the political gravity of the Democrats failing to raise the minimum wage under these circumstances. This isn't a "progressive issue" like single-payer Medicare for all or tuition-free college. A minimum wage increase is a bare minimum expectation that Democratic voters have of Democratic presidents. Every single Democratic president we've had from Franklin Roosevelt through Barack Obama has either signed a minimum wage hike into law or else (as in the case of Obama) at least presided over a period wherein the federal minimum wage rose. Bill Clinton (a president notably well to the right of Bernie Sanders) passed a minimum wage hike through a Republican-controlled House of Representatives. When Democrats won back the House and the Senate in 2006 (the latter, incidentally, by a margin no greater than that of their present control today), they managed to get a Republican president, George W. Bush, to sign a minimum wage increase into law by attaching it to a must-pass military funding bill, which incidentally the polling suggested was the single most popular thing that particular Congress did too. It's an expectation. People EXPECT the minimum wage to go up when they elect Democrats because it always does. It's not considered an advanced-level, politically risky demand. Increases have routinely occurred under partisan balances less favorable toward the Democrats than the one they presently face. In a situation wherein the Democrats have the House, the Senate, and the presidency, there is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for not passing any hike at all, especially for a party that has been billed, and would indeed bill itself, as ideologically more progressive and left-leaning today than in say the 1990s or the 2000s when they managed to pull off the feat.

When I voted for Joe Biden last fall, one of the main policies I was voting for was an increase in my wages as a full-time, low-income worker (barely) living on $9.40 an hour. If I don't get one, I reserve the right to withhold my vote next year. Raising the minimum wage, again, is NOT a radical or dangerous proposition, it's an expectation people have when they vote for Democrats! We're talking about the basic survival needs of some of the very poorest among us here, not an extravagance. If Joe Biden's Democratic Party cannot pull off such a feat in 2021 under these favorable circumstances where Democrats have done so so many times before under less favorable scenarios, that would be a new precedent for the modern era, and it's one I'm not about to excuse or accept. I am in favor of raising hell on this issue. If it proves absolutely necessary, I'm okay with delaying passage of the Rescue Plan beyond March 14th if that's what it takes to change the votes of King Manchin and Queen Sinema. We'll see how their constituents like a lapse in their unemployment benefits over this matter! I hope both of them get primaried.

Minimum wage here is $28 an hour for a casual worker. (With casual loading) which is roughly equivalent to $21.28 USD per hour.

That is on top of Universal Healthcare (Which is also cheaper on the taxpayer!) and is one of the best Healthcare systems in the world and we have one of the highest standards of living and more.

Minimum wage is good enough that leaving "tips" for waitresses isn't even a thing.

...I'm baffled. Much in contrast to your seemingly ever-changing stance on this issue, my position in favor of a $15/hour standard has been absolutely 100% consistent across this entire thread. That has not changed. I am in favor of whatever means might arrive us at that end; whatever might lift my pay rate to that level and not less. That's because, while your livelihood may not depend on it, I like to eat.

What baffles me even more is the absence of other supporters of a $15/hour minimum standard here on a thread that's clearly dominated by Democrats and their supporters in other countries these days. Rab and myself seem to be the only proponents of this position here. I don't know how someone like yourself gets off preaching against my ostensible inconsistency and lack of principles.

It seems to me like most of the contributors to this thread anymore will just support any position that enjoys the support of the Biden Administration regardless of what it is. If Biden signals that he's cool with the total elimination of any minimum wage increase at all in this bill, *snaps* most of you are on board with that position instantaneously and without a second thought about broken campaign promises that tens of millions of people cared about a great deal or who might suffer needlessly as a result.

£8.20, not £12. So around $11-12 US.

One thing I'll add is Australian Super that guarantees an income or lump sum after retirement far greater than a normal pension in most other countries, paid by all employers through out the working life of any individual, it's basically a forced saving plan, for many people that can be over $500k payed to the retired worker    

In Australia, superannuation, or just "super", is compulsory for all people who have worked and reside in Australia. The balance of a person's superannuation account, or for many people, accounts, is then used to provide an income stream when retiring. Federal law dictates minimum amounts that employers must contribute to the super accounts of their employees, on top of standard wages or salaries

I'd like to say that I am disappointed that all minimum wage related provisions were removed from the Covid stimulus bill. I understand the move and the rationale: The most important thing right now is ensuring benefits don't lapse and getting aid to people as soon as possible. If we get into a protracted fight about minimum wage language, that won't happen.

However, this does feel like a product of Democratic leadership's urgency (or lack thereof) on the matter. It hasn't really felt like the Biden administration has been pushing to get this done as soon as possible, and the same can be said for Senate leadership. Maybe they are all doing a ton of work on this behind the scenes, but at the least, they have done a poor job at conveying that urgency. Now we are being forced to make cuts because of that lack of urgency. Like, we should have had the minimum wage plan B package lined up and discussed with every Senator before it got to the point where we needed it.

With that said, I do still have some degree of optimism on the matter. The fact that the Biden administration made it a key part of their initial Covid relief strategy surprised me and I don't feel I have reason to distrust them when they say this is not the end of the fight. I believe some Democrats have floated the idea of including minimum wage provisions in an infrastructure bill slated for later this year and I hope they follow through on that. I expect that to be a push for a bipartisan bill, but I can see an $11 or $12 Minimum wage grabbing 60 votes in the Senate if the rest of the bill is solid. We'll see if the Republicans want to come to the table there. If not, passing that infrastructure bill through Budget Reconciliation may still be an option.

And I do think that this bill, even without a Minimum wage provision, will overwhelmingly be a positive step that I wholly support, which we never would have gotten if Republicans had maintained their leadership positions.

I feel if we have to get 60 votes that Republicans will ask for the world and they try to portray that they are for some form of increase.  It will basically be one poison pill bill after another on the same level as Josh efforts.  The thing is that the GOP has absolutely no reason or wish to do anything that will make Biden or his administration look good by passing anything close to his promise.  Its basically the same strategy that Mitch used during the Obama years.  Nuke everything even if it was something we wanted and put the blame on the President, Dems or both.  If that CPAC was anything to go by, I definitely do not see any traction from the GOP unless these people really divorce themselves from Mitch and Trump.

I believe the Dems believed everyone was on board then old Joe broke ranks which should not have happened but still a big miss on the Dems part.  Personally I would either like the increase within the infrastructure bill if that happens or totally stand alone and let the GOP try to argue against it for whatever reasons they have to get them on record.  No real movement can happen until we know what everyone position is.

Biden/Harris were showing great promise early on, many Progressives were willing to praise them, but this is changing rapidly, now it can be seen how little fight they have for the $15 minimum wage for the working poor, they had the opportunity to easily pass it, but ignored that opportunity completely

This just seems like a pretty clear lie to me...