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US Senate Republicans blocked a Democrat effort to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 (£5.98) an hour yesterday.
Democrats convinced just one Republican to back the measure but, with a vote of 54-42, missed the 60 votes necessary to begin debate on the Bill.
Republicans were out-of-touch elites, said the Democrats, unworried that those who worked 40 hours per week at the current minimum of $7.25 (£4.29) still lived in poverty.
“They’re back in the 19th century saying we shouldn’t do this,” said Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.
“We will bring this Bill to the floor again and again and again, and sooner or later we will get it done.”
President Barack Obama, who signed an order in February for federal contractors to be paid at least $10.10, said the Bill’s failure made “no sense.”
Twenty states already have minimum wages above the federal rate, according to the Department of Labour.
