You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Biden Orders $15/Hour Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors, Proposes Capital Gains Tax Hike

HeadlineApr 27, 2021

President Biden is signing an executive order today establishing a $15-an-hour minimum wage for federal contractors. Biden will also eliminate a lower “tipped” minimum wage for certain federal contractors who receive tips.

Meanwhile, the White House is preparing to propose an increase in the capital gains tax to help pay for Biden’s upcoming American Families Plan. The proposal calls for increased federal spending on child care, pre-K, paid family leave and tuition-free community college. Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, said the capital gains tax increase will target only the very wealthiest Americans. 

Brian Deese: “This change will only apply to three-tenths of a percent of taxpayers, which is not the top 1%. It’s not even the top one-half of 1%. We’re talking about three-tenths of a percent. That’s about 500,000 households in the country that we’re talking about.”

On Wednesday, President Biden will speak to a joint session of Congress — a ceremony that was delayed from February due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top