WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is set to sign an executive order to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour for federal contractors, providing a pay bump to hundreds of thousands of workers.
Biden administration officials said the higher wages would lead to greater worker productivity, offsetting any additional costs to taxpayers.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations ahead of Tuesday's signing. The officials could not provide an exact figure on how many workers for federal contractors would receive a raise, only that it would be hundreds of thousands.
There are an estimated 5 million contract workers in the federal government, according to a posting last year for the Brookings Institution by