The increase is part of the greater initiative to raise wages across the board.

President Joe Biden announced today that he will be requiring all federal contractors to raise their minimum wage rates to $15 an hour for their employees by March of 2022. Biden will be signing an executive order today to begin setting the foundation for this change. Currently, the minimum wage for federal contractors is $10.95 an hour. Some contractors also operate on a tipped minimum wage, in which workers are paid $7.65 an hour on the assumption that they’ll receive tips. Biden’s plan includes measures to eliminate tipped minimum wages and bring all wages up to an equal $15 by the year 2024.

Officials from the Biden administration that spoke to reporters on the matter expressed confidence that raising the minimum wage will help to narrow income inequality gaps. When asked if they knew whether the change would raise taxpayer costs, the officials said it would not, as any costs would be mitigated by reduced employee turnover and a reduced need for training.

“These workers are critical to the functioning of the federal government: from cleaning professionals and maintenance workers who ensure federal employees have safe and clean places to work, to nursing assistants who care for the nation’s veterans, to cafeteria and other food service workers who ensure military members have healthy and nutritious food to eat, to laborers who build and repair federal infrastructure,” the announcement’s fact sheet reads.

Biden had previously pushed for an all-around minimum wage increase for all US workers while drafting the recent COVID-19 relief package, but the measure didn’t make it past the Senate. Pay security is currently a hot button topic for Democratic senators, as many US citizens have had their pay security reduced by lost jobs and reduced hours caused by the pandemic.