Five U.S. states are suing the Biden administration over its new minimum wage hike that requires federal agencies to pay contractors $15 per hour. The change went into effect on Jan. 30, covering some 500,000 businesses that employ one-fifth of the entire U.S. labor force. The attorneys general of Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Nebraska, and South Carolina, led by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, mounted a federal lawsuit (pdf) arguing that President Joe Biden lacked statutory authority when he signed an executive order on April 27, 2021, to mandate the minimum wage. The five attorneys general noted in their lawsuit that the U.S. Senate had rejected the administration’s proposal to include a $15 per hour wage increase in the coronavirus relief package, in a vote of 42–58, but Biden was “undeterred” and decided to enact that measure via executive order. As announced by the Department of Labor (DOL), the rule applies in all 50 states, the District …