Titus proposes big boost in U.S. minimum wage

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., introduced a bill Thursday to increase the minimum wage and subminimum wage.

The Labor Income Fairness and Transparency (LIFT) Act would raise the minimum wage and all Fair Labor Standards Act subminimum wages to $17 per hour over the next three years followed by annual increases, according to Titus’ office. It would also provide income protections for tipped workers and expand the earned income tax credit to cover more workers.

The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009 with tipped employee wages as low as $2.13 an hour. Nevada’s minimum wage was increased to $12 an hour in 2024, and voters eliminated subminimum wages for tipped workers in 2022.

“This legislation is a fair way to increase the take-home pay of both tipped employees and employees who do not receive tips, giving all hospitality and other workers a needed boost in meeting an increasing cost of living,” Titus said in a statement. “It also will protect tipped workers from unjustified employer deductions from their tips.”

The bill will require employers to provide a notice of tips received by an employee each day they work and would prohibit managers from withholding tips to cover the cost of processing a tip, according to Titus’ office.

The LIFT Act would also prohibit Wage and Hour investigators at the Department of Labor from being subjected to reductions in force, and it establishes a grant program for states and localities to improve enforcement and compliance with wage laws. It also would create a national advisory committee on the hospitality industry in the Department of Labor.

Titus’ bill would permanently extend changes made by Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic to the earned income tax credit, including increasing the maximum credit amount for workers without children and increasing the income threshold for earning the credit.

“The Earned Income Tax Credit was changed to provide needed relief for workers who have not benefited as much as they should have from the credit,” Titus said in the statement. “Making these changes permanent will make a big difference in the lives of millions of lower-paid American workers.”

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.