President Joe Biden is following through on a campaign pledge thats expected to boost hourly pay for hundreds of thousands of workers.

Senior administration officials said the president plans to sign an executive order Tuesday to increase the minimum wage for workers under federal contracts. That rate is currently $10.95 per hour but will rise to $15 per hour next year under Bidens plan the equivalent of a 37% raise at the very bottom of the wage scale.

The change would bring a significant pay increase to employees of private firms that hold government contracts for concessions, janitorial work, personal care and other lower-wage services. The wage rate would continue to be tied to an inflation index so that it increases with the cost of living, requiring firms to adjust their minimums each year.

It will improve the economic security of families and make progress toward reversing decades of income inequality, the White House said in a fact sheet released on the plan.

Federal agencies would have to implement the new wage floor in their contracts by March 30, 2022.

Progressive Democrats have been trying to increase the federal minimum wage to $15, but Republicans and a handful of moderate Democrats have stood in the way. Biden, however, has the power to implement a unilateral increase for workers under federal contracts by tweaking the governments procurement rules.

It is not a new concept. Former President Barack Obama signed an executive order in 2014 increasing the minimum wage for contractors to $10.10 and pegging it to inflation. Presidents going back at least to Franklin Roosevelt have wielded the governments purchasing power in similar ways to raise working standards in the private sector.