In this week’s State of the Union address, President Obama is expected to ask members of Congress to pass a nearly 40% increase in the federal minimum wage.
A new Employment Policies Institute (EPI) analysis shows that the vast majority of the bill’s sponsors are legislating with a “do as I say, not as I do” approach: Fully 96% of the House and Senate sponsors of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 do not pay their interns. In other words, the same Members of Congress who are supporting a 40% wage hike on private sector employers are simultaneously failing to provide any wages to their own employee interns.
The full list on sponsors, and the compensation details of their internship program, is available here. (Note: EPI classified an office as having paid internships even if not all internships were paid.)
