Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC with me, Manuel Zaragoza.

Coming up, what's not to like about President Biden's plan to increase the federal minimum wage?

Well, lots apparently.

A lot of businesses can't afford it.

So then what will happen is they'll have to cut hours, cut people, deploy maybe

technology to replace people. And in a long run, I don't know if that's going to help the

businesses or it's going to hurt workers even more. But others argue a rise in the national

minimum wage is just what America needs right now, especially amid the pandemic.

There are people who are trying to raise families on the basis of this low wage

work. And we have to think about what's the most politically feasible way to provide these workers

with the support that they need. That's all here on Business Daily from the BBC.

Nowhere in the US is it possible to make ends meet on 725.

It's a level that nobody can live on, let alone raise a family.

Alan Umel there is campaign director for the Fight for 15 movement.

For the past decade, they've been campaigning to increase the minimum wage

in the US to $15 an hour from the current $7.25. And she says the need for better pay has

never been greater than now amid the pandemic. You know, the pain that families are feeling in this

moment is incredibly, incredibly real. You hear the crisis that people are going through as they have to take multiple jobs.

And during the pandemic, where hours are getting cut and workers are getting squeezed,

that 725 is getting stretched even more and more.

And these days, workers in the U.S. are parents, their working families that are

taking care of children and regularly facing homelessness. But families pay look set to rise

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