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Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema Facing Criticism After Voting Against Minimum Wage Hike

Krysten Sinema's office has called the criticism being doled out to the politician as "sexist".

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Kyrsten Sinema and other Democrats who voted against minimum wage hike being criticised: The United States Senate squashed the bill to hike minimum wage in the country to $15 per hour on Friday. Apart from 50 Republicans in the Senate who voted against the proposal, eight Democrats too gave it a thumbs down, one of them being Arizona Senator Krysten Sinema. Ever since, Sinema and the fellow Democrats who voted against the bill have been facing criticism on social media.
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If passed the bill would have raised the minimum wage in the US from $7.25 an hour to $15 per hour. The proposal was to add a $15 federal minimum wage hike to US President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill. The US House of Representatives had passed Biden's coronavirus relief bill last week, marking his first major legislative victory.

The reason why Sinema is being targetted in the backlash specifically is because many saw her "thumbs down" hand gesture while voting against the bill as exaggerated and "belittling" of the issue that it was dealing with.

Here's how Twitter reacted to Sinema's thumb's down:

Krysten Sinema's office, however, has called the criticism being doled out to the politician as sexist. "Commentary about a female senator’s body language, clothing, or physical demeanor does not belong in a serious media outlet," her spokesperson Hannah Hurle said.

Sinema's critics have rejected her claims of sexism:

Krysten Sinema is a former social worker and defence attorney who used to teach at Arizona State University. After being elected to the Senate in 2018, Sinema became the first women ever in Arizona's history to represent the state in the Senate and the first Democrat elected to the seat ever since the 1980s. She is also the first openly bisexual member of the Senate.

Image Credit: Associated Press

women in politics joe biden Kyrsten Sinema minimum wage bill
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