Policy Week in Review – June 13, 2025

Bipartisan Legislation Introduced to Raise the Minimum Wage

Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Peter Welch (D-VT) introduced legislation on June 10, titled “Higher Wages for American Workers Act of 2025,” that would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour in January after enactment with annual automatic increases indexed to inflation thereafter. Given the (albeit slim) Republican majorities in the House and Senate, the legislation is unlikely to advance. The same is true of legislation previously introduced this year by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA), titled “Raise the Wage Act,” that would incrementally raise the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour by 2030 and eliminate the tip credit. The federal minimum wage was last increased in 2009 to $7.25 per hour; however, many states and localities have raised their own minimum wages. For additional information, please read Littler’s Semi-Annual Rates Update for Minimum Wage, Tips, and Exempt Pay Increases on July 1, 2025 (and Other Developments). 

House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Restoring Balance at the NLRB 

On June 11, the House Education and Workforce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions held a hearing titled, “Restoring Balance: Ensuring Fairness and Transparency at the NLRB.” The focus of the hearing was to examine the role of the National Labor Relations Board in protecting American Workers. In his opening remarks, Subcommittee Chair Rick Allen (R-GA) provided various examples of what he considered to be the previous administration’s overreach to tilt the scale toward organized labor and expand unionization, including rulemaking to expand joint employment liability, efforts to make student athletes and graduate students employees so they can unionize, and the prohibition on employer-led mandatory meetings to discuss workplace issues, among others. Democratic witness Jennifer Abruzzo, the former Biden-era NLRB general counsel, addressed the Board’s current lack of a quorum, stating in her written testimony that, “On January 27th, after the President unlawfully fired Board Member Gwynne Wilcox – the first black woman on the NLRB – at the same time that he removed me, the Board lost its quorum and now is comprised of two white males, who can’t issue decisions. And, who is benefitting from this dysfunction? Not workers, but employers, who may feel emboldened to violate the law with impunity and retaliate against their workers, who are unionizing or otherwise acting together to make their work lives better, because there is no functioning Board to hold them accountable for lawbreaking activity. So, at the same time that billionaires and corporations are pushing for more tax cuts at the expense of working families, they are trying to silence their workers. This is a travesty. Corporate billionaires and CEOs are getting rich off the backs of their employees. The ones that should get more money, benefits, protections and tax breaks are workers and their families.” For further recap of the hearing and witness testimony, read here.

Senate HELP Committee to Hold Confirmation Hearing on U.S. DOL and EEOC Nominees

On Wednesday, June 18 at 10:00 a.m. ET, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will hold a confirmation hearing on four of the Trump administration’s nominees. The nominations for the U.S. Department of Labor include: Jonathan Berry to be solicitor of labor; Andrew Rogers to be the administrator of the Wage and Hour Division; and Anthony D’Esposito to be the inspector general. Additionally, the current Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Acting Chair Andrea Lucas is being renominated to serve another term on the EEOC. Lucas was designated as acting chair of the EEOC by President Trump on January 20, 2025. Click here to watch the live hearing.