Amendment to Allow the Senate to Set a Minimum Wage

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I shall definitely consider voting in favour of this bill. However, would regions still be allowed to set their own (regional) minimum wages?

Of course, though not one lower than the federal minimum.

I wouldn't be certain about.  There's language in Article I Section 5 Clauses 4 and 6 that could be interpreted to require that any minimum wage set by the Senate would have to be a uniform minimum wage which the Regions would be unable to alter.  It probably would be best if you want the Regions to be able to establish a higher minimum Wage to make that explict so as to forestall a potential court case.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Should this amendment pass and be ratified by the Regions, in your opinion Senator, couldn't any Federal Minimum Wage Bill allow the Regions to set a higher minimum wage over the national minimum or would this need to be explicit in this Amendment?

If the courts rule as I think they might, then such a provision in a Federal Minimum Wage Bill would be unconstitutional.  The Amendment as it stands now would make the power to establish a minimum wage a Federal one and the Senate cannot delegate to the Regions an ability to make it non-uniform if itself does not possess such an ability.  If the Constitution were held to require that any minimum wage set by the Senate be uniform, then it would not be able to escape that restriction by passing a law that said the Regions could do so absent a specific grant of power in the Constitution.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Aye

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I'd like some feedback as to whether the Amendment in its current state would allow the Senate to establish a separate minimum wage for the insular territories and the federal district or whether further change is needed to preserve that ability.  Given the economic conditions of the insular territories, a level of minimum wage that would have an effect in Atlasia proper would be disastrous there.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

But are the insular areas of Atlasia considered to part of Atlasia or merely controlled by it?  In the United States that issue was settled by the Insular Cases, which established the doctrine that until territory was incorporated into the United States it didn't become part of it as far as constitution protections were concerned.  That's why for example the residents of the Philippines didn't become U.S. citizens while it was controlled by the U.S. (It's also why even today, persons born in American Samoa do not automatically become U.S. citizens at birth.)  If the doctrine of incorporated and unincorporated territory holds for Atlasia, then we don't to explicitly establish that the Senate has the power to set different rates for the minimum wage for the insular territories.  Still, with no precedent from our Supreme Court, I'd rest easier if we made such the power for the Senate to establish a different minimum wage rate explicit, either by amending this amendment or passing a general  amendment that makes the Insular doctrine an explicit part of the Atlasian constitution.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Aye

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

And so we now are reaching the point where we are about to vote on whether to send this amendment to the Regions.  I think we've made this about as good a minimum wage amendment as possible, but the fact is, I think it's far better to use the Earned Income Tax Credit or a similar scheme to achieve the goal of ensuring that workers earn a minimum wage than to require employers pay it directly.  As such, I shall be voting against this amendment.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Nay