Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) was so excited when the Minneapolis City Council passed a $15 an hour minimum wage, he broke out into song.
“The Minneapolis City Council just approved raising the minimum wage to $15! That’s such good news, I had to sing a song to celebrate,” Ellison wrote on Twitter.
Ellison tweeted the video Friday afternoon of himself singing a song about the city’s passage of the $15 minimum wage to the tune of Motown’s “Money (That’s What I Want)” while he strummed a guitar.
“I’ve been marching for my 15, getting paid, now, that’s what I mean — I need money, that’s what I want, yeah,” the Minnesota Democrat sang.
“Fifteen dollars, that’s awesome,” Ellison said after his song. “I’m so proud of you guys, you keep it up. We’re gonna fight here in Washington, you guys are fighting there in Minneapolis, we’re fighting all over the country so the American people can get a raise.”
“Thank you very much, for your struggle is awesome, and let’s go get it,” he said.
The Minneapolis City Council approved the minimum-wage hike Friday on an 11-1 vote, KMSP reported.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the wage hike will not be fully phased in until 2024. Large businesses would have to enact a $15 minimum wage by July 1, 2022, while small businesses would have until July 1, 2024, to adopt the new minimum wage.
Ellison, the chair of the House Progressive Caucus and Democratic National Committee Vice Chair, introduced legislation in May that would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour nationwide by 2024.
A study from the Heritage Foundation on that bill noted that if implemented, the minimum wage hike would cause a loss of seven million jobs.