State Rep. Melissa Sargent, D-Madison, unveiled a bill Tuesday to increase Wisconsin's minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next five years.
The bill, announced on Workers’ Memorial Day, seeks to ensure "an honest day's wage for an honest day's work," Sargent explained in a Tuesday press conference.
The increased minimum wage would be indexed for inflation and require service employees to be paid the minimum wage even if they work for tips.
Currently, Wisconsin's minimum wage is the same as the federal minimum wage of $7.25. Twenty-nine states have minimum wages higher than the federal level.
"Large, profitable companies pay as little as they can get away with, so full-time workers like me can't cover the basics," said Evette Gardner, a mother of three who works at Little Caesars.
Gardner described her struggles to pay for basic living costs on the current minimum wage.
"How can I show my kids to value health when I can't even lead by example?" Gardner asked.
The National Federation of Independent Business criticized the legislation in a Tuesday statement.
"At a time when Wisconsin is beginning to recover from the great recession, this proposal would have a deep and disproportionate impact on small business," said Bill Smith, NFIB's state director, in a Tuesday statement. "Any increase in Wisconsin's minimum wage will not only add more stress on small business but on to hard working consumers."
More than 15 legislators have signed on to the bill, Sargent said. Despite the unlikelihood of the bill's passage under Republican leadership in the state Senate and Assembly, Sargent noted she still stands by her bill as she tries to make her constituents' voices heard.
"If I only introduced bills that I was sure were going to pass, I don't know if I'd even have to go to work in the morning," Sargent said. "The leadership in [the state Capitol] are not my bosses. My constituents are my bosses."
