Minimum wage hike all but dead in big COVID relief bill

WASHINGTON (AP) – Four days after the chamber's parliamentarian said Senate rules forbid inclusion of a straight-out minimum wage increase in the relief measure, Democrats seemed to have exhausted their most realistic options for quickly salvaging the pay hike but chose to keep the provision in the bill.

“At this moment, we may not have a path, but I hope we can find one” for pushing the federal pay floor to $15 an hour, said No. 2 Senate Democratic leader Richard Durbin of Illinois.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the $15 minimum wage mandate would result in the loss of 1.3...