AOC invokes Denmark in minimum wage debate — critics point out Denmark doesn't have a federal minimum wage
By Houston Keene | Fox News
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., omitted a key detail on Wednesday while comparing the U.S. federal minimum wage to the wage paid to Danish McDonald’s workers.
The New York congresswoman called the discussion around raising the federal minimum wage "utterly embarrassing" in a tweet published Tuesday night.
She then called on the Senate to "[o]verride the parliamentarian and raise the wage" to $15 an hour and pointed to the wage McDonald’s workers in Denmark are paid to back her demand.
She also claimed the $15 minimum wage hike was "a deep compromise" after demanding the Senate override the chamber’s parliamentarian — a nonpartisan officer who oversees rules and procedures in the legislative body.
"[McDonald’s] workers in Denmark are paid $22/hr [plus] 6 [weeks] paid vacation. $15/hr is a deep compromise - a big one, considering the phase in," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter.
There is one thing Ocasio-Cortez’s argument left out, though: Denmark doesn’t have a nationally mandated minimum wage. Typically, trade unions work to keep wages above $20, but there is no federal wage, USA Today noted in a fact check last month.
Ocasio-Cortez's office did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
Several people online — such as conservative journalist David Harsanyi — were quick to call out the error in the Democratic congresswoman’s argument, pointing out that Denmark does not have a federal minimum wage.
National Review Institute media strategist Giancarlo Sopo also pointed out the error to the congresswoman — who has an economics degree from Boston University.
Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza did not mince words in his response to Ocasio-Cortez's tweet.
"Denmark, like most Scandinavian countries, does not have a minimum wage," D'Souza wrote. "It is utterly embarrassing you don’t seem to know that."
Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet came as Congress debates raising the federal minimum wage to $15.
The Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled last week the wage hike should not be included in the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, throwing a wrench into the Democrats’ plans.
Despite the odds of it passing, Democrats are pushing hard for the wage hike. However, key votes in the Senate from party moderates Senators Joe Manchin, D-W.V., and Kirsten Synema, D-Az., have also put the plan at risk.
Democrats would need the support of 10 Senate Republicans to pass the measure with the wage hike, unless they abolish the filibuster.
A daunting task, but one with some room for negotiation — Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., penned a joint op-ed published on FoxNews.com supporting a more modest minimum wage increase.
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