Full Employment Federal Reserve Act of 2015

Summary: The Full Employment Federal Reserve Act of 2015  This bill amends the Federal Reserve Act with respect to the duty of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to promote maximum employment and stable prices. The bill defines &quot;maximum employment&quot; as an economy with an unemployment rate of at most 4% that generally includes a labor market in which median wages are rising with worker productivity, job seekers can find work, and involuntary part-time work is at a minimum. The Board and the FOMC are also directed to promote a stable rate of inflation (instead of stable prices) as part of long run growth.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``The Full Employment Federal Reserve 
Act of 2015''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) In recent decades, the economy has stopped working for 
        working families in the United States.
            (2) Despite significant gains in workers' productivity and 
        gross domestic product over the past 30 years, workers have 
        seen their wages stagnate and sometimes fall.
            (3) The benefits of the powerful economy of the United 
        States have gone almost entirely to the richest people in 
        society, which has created a growing gap between the wealthy 
        and the rest of our country.
            (4) Such widening disparities are unhealthy for our 
        democracy and unhealthy for the broad swath of working families 
        who are unable to afford to pay their rent or buy a home, save 
        for their children's higher education, or afford the basic 
        necessities to live a dignified and full life.
            (5) One major factor contributing to this growing economic 
        crisis has been the lack of full employment in the economy of 
        the United States.
            (6) Too many workers struggle to find jobs, and the jobs 
        that are available often do not pay a good wage.
            (7) In the absence of a tight labor market and genuine full 
        employment, workers are at the mercy of their employers and 
        cannot ask for raises or leave for better job opportunities.
            (8) As a result of workers' decreased bargaining power, 
        corporate profits and executive compensation have accounted for 
        an increasingly large share of gross domestic product, leaving 
        the large majority of workers in the United States behind.
            (9) Since 1980, the economy of the United States has had an 
        excessively high level of unemployment 70 percent of the time, 
        according to the Congressional Budget Office's official 
        estimate of full employment (that is, the nonaccelerating 
        inflation rate of unemployment, or ``NAIRU'').
            (10) This contrasts with the 1949-1979 era, when the 
        economy of the United States was functioning below full 
        employment only 31 percent of the time.
            (11) This persistently weak labor market has had tremendous 
        consequences not only for the unemployed and underemployed, but 
        also for employed workers who have been unable to negotiate for 
        higher wages and better working conditions, including the 
        following examples:
                    (A) Since 1979, although economy-wide productivity 
                has grown by 64.3 percent, women's median wages have 
                risen by only 20.6 percent and men's median wages have 
                actually fallen by 8.9 percent, and the statistics for 
                Black and Hispanic workers are even worse than for 
                White workers.
                    (B) Workers' share of corporate income has shrunk 
                significantly, from 82.3 percent during the full 
                employment economy of 2000 to 75.5 percent today, a 
                decline that means that workers will earn $535 billion 
                less this year than they would have had the share 
                remained stable, or approximately $3,770 per worker 
                this year.
                    (C) Between 2002 and 2014, inflation-adjusted 
                hourly wages for the bottom seven deciles (that is, 70 
                percent of the workforce of the United States) fell, 
                showing that wage stagnation is not limited to low-
                income families.
                    (D) Even highly educated workers are not thriving 
                in this economy; wages for college-educated and 
                advanced-degree workers fell in 2013 and 2014, a time 
                of economic growth for the economy at large.
            (12) Congress has mandated that the Board of Governors of 
        the Federal Reserve System pursue a dual mandate of ``maximum 
        employment'' and ``stable prices'', which the Board of 
        Governors has interpreted to mean full employment that is 
        consistent with an inflation rate of 2 percent.
            (13) Since the Great Recession, the economy of the United 
        States has consistently had an unemployment rate higher than 
        the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System's NAIRU 
        and an inflation rate below the 2-percent target; consistently 
        missing both targets has caused untold harm to hundreds of 
        millions of people.
            (14) Today's headline unemployment rate understates the 
        continued weakness of the economy of the United States, 
        including the following examples:
                    (A) Long-term unemployment is elevated.
                    (B) Involuntary part-time employment remains very 
                high, indicating a large pool of workers who would 
                prefer to be given more hours.
                    (C) The portion of prime-age adults who are in the 
                labor force remains depressed, because so many millions 
                of people have given up looking for work.
            (15) Although there is no empirical evidence that an 
        inflation rate of 3 or 4 percent would be harmful, or would be 
        difficult to maintain at a stable rate, many observers believe 
        that the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System 
        actually treats its 2-percent inflation target as a ceiling.
            (16) Over recent decades and even today, refusal by the 
        Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to tolerate 
        any inflation means that it has consistently raised interest 
        rates prematurely during recoveries, preventing the economy 
        from reaching full employment.
            (17) Inflation remains below the already conservative 2-
        percent target of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
        System and shows no signs of accelerating uncontrollably.
            (18) During the late 1990s, the economy of the United 
        States began to reach genuine full employment, with an 
        unemployment rate of below 4 percent, which had tremendous 
        benefits for the vast majority of people, including--
                    (A) higher wages for everyone, including those at 
                the bottom of the income ladder;
                    (B) robust wage gains for African-Americans and 
                Hispanics, which shrank the tremendous racial 
                disparities in pay and wealth; and
                    (C) a large Federal budget surplus (and State 
                budget surpluses), which meant money was available for 
                key services like education, health care, and 
                infrastructure investment.
            (19) One key reason that the economy approached full 
        employment was that the Board of Governors of the Federal 
        Reserve System resisted pressures to raise interest rates and 
        let the unemployment rate continue to fall.
            (20) Achieving genuine full employment should be the 
        foremost economic priority of the United States, and all 
        branches of the Federal Government should use their full power 
        to accomplish this goal.

SEC. 3. MODIFICATION TO THE GOALS OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE 
              FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM AND THE FEDERAL OPEN MARKET 
              COMMITTEE.

    Section 2A of the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 225a) is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``(defined as an economy with an 
        unemployment rate of not more than 4 percent and that generally 
        includes a labor market in which median wages are rising with 
        worker productivity, job seekers can find work, and involuntary 
        part-time work is at a minimum)'' after ``maximum employment''; 
        and
            (2) by striking ``stable prices'' and inserting ``a stable 
        rate of inflation''.