The Raise The Wage Act, federal legislation filed by US House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA), was the subject of the Committee’s first major public hearing of the year yesterday. The legislation (H.R. 582) filed earlier this year with much fanfare and 181 House cosponsors, would more than double the current federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour to $15 an hour within 5 years, by 2024. One of the lead witnesses was Terrence Wise, a shift manager at a local McDonald’s restaurant in Independence, Missouri, described himself as a “second-generation fast food worker”. The legislation, as summarized by Chairman Scott in his opening statement, would establish a $15 minimum (beginning in 2024) in all regions across the nation, eliminate the tipped wage as well as any sub-minimum wage for teenage workers, and subsequently tether the federal minimum wage to the national median wage. An identical bill with 31 democratic cosponsors was also filed in the US Senate.