With minimum wage bill, news organizations help Republican Sen. Josh Hawley rebrand as a working class ally

Headlines from NBC News, USA Today, The Hill, and CBS News gave credit to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) for helping to introduce a bipartisan bill to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. But many of these same news stories neglected to mention Hawley’s past opposition to minimum wage increases, both in his state and nationwide, and his support for policies that will harm members of the working class — even as they printed his quotes about the hardships they face.

An NBC News headline declared: “GOP Sen. Josh Hawley introduces bill to raise federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.” But the NBC article also suggested that the bill was dead on arrival, stating: “Hawley admitted he is an outlier in his party, and it is far from clear the wage legislation will reach the Senate floor, let alone find the 60 votes needed to advance in the chamber, where the GOP controls 53 seats.” An NBC News post on X (formerly Twitter) gave him still more praise: “Sen. Josh Hawley introduces a bill with Sen. Peter Welch to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, making him a rare congressional Republican to endorse the historically liberal cause.”