A recent report found that 95 percent of lawmakers who support raising the minimum wage to $15 nationwide do not pay their interns.
The study from the Employment Policies Institute found that at least 174 out of the 184 lawmakers in Congress who support legislation that would raise the minimum wage to $15 do not pay their interns.
A few of the senators who do not pay their interns include Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), and 20 other senators who cosponsored the Raise the Wage Act, according to the report.
On the House side, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), and 145 other representatives who cosponsored the Raise the Wage Act reportedly do not pay their interns.
Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.” host Stuart Varney called many of these lawmakers “hypocritical” Monday morning for not offering payment for these internships because they limit the number of applicants to those who can afford to foot the bill for food, living, and transportation costs.
“If you don’t pay them anything, then you’re simply giving jobs to the sons and daughters of the rich,” Varney said. “You’re giving opportunity to the rich so that they can get in on the ground floor. So pay them something, and open it up to all kinds of people. But they’re not doing it.”
Another recent study on the $15 minimum wage in a Maryland county found that, if the minimum wage went up to $15, the area would lose $47,000 jobs by 2022.