Romney and Sinema teaming up on proposal to raise the minimum wage

Washington — Republican Senator Mitt Romney and Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema are teaming up on a proposal to raise the federal minimum wage, which has not been increased since 2009. Romney told reporters Wednesday that he and Sinema are working on a plan which they will present to a bipartisan group of 20 centrist senators.

"We're negotiating a minimum wage proposal which we would ultimately take to our group of 20 and see how they react to it and then go from there," Romney said. "We've pretty much come to the meeting of the minds among ourselves, meaning Senator Sinema and myself, but there are many other people who want to be part of that discussion." Romney did not provide details about the timeline for the wage hike or what the new minimum wage would be, although Democratic Senator Joe Manchin told reporters on Wednesday that he believed the measure would raise the wage to $11 per hour. The tentative proposal by Romney and Sinema was first reported by HuffPost. A spokesperson for Romney confirmed that the senator is holding discussions on raising the minimum wage.