On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris made it clear for the first time that she supports raising the federal minimum wage to at least $15 per hour.
This announcement followed her criticism of former President Donald Trump for avoiding a direct answer on whether he would raise the minimum wage.
With both Harris and Trump racing to win over voters in the final weeks before the election, the topic of supporting working-class Americans has become a focal point for both campaigns.
The federal minimum wage, which has remained at $7.25 since 2009, has sparked renewed discussion, especially after Trump briefly worked as a fry cook at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania last Sunday.
While Harris had previously mentioned her intention to increase the minimum wage, she did not specify a target until Tuesday, when NBC News directly asked her about it.
Harris responded, “At least $15 an hour, but we’ll work with Congress, right? That’s something that is going through Congress.” Her comment was part of a broader interview with NBC, where she detailed her stance.
Trump, on the other hand, sidestepped the question when asked during his brief time at McDonald’s about whether the minimum wage should be increased. His vague reply was, “Well, I think this: I think these people work hard, they’re great.”
When asked to react to Harris’ endorsement of a $15 minimum wage, the Trump campaign referred to a statement by Republican National Committee spokesperson Anna Kelly. In the statement, Kelly accused Harris of “lowering real wages and raising prices via reckless spending.”
Harris seized on Trump’s indirect response as an opportunity to highlight the contrast between her and her Republican opponent.
Although she didn’t specify her desired threshold at the time, she emphasized her commitment to raising the minimum wage.
“There’s a significant difference between Donald Trump and me on several issues, including this one. I firmly believe we must raise the minimum wage. Hard working Americans, whether they work at McDonald’s or elsewhere, deserve at least the ability to take care of their families and meet their own needs,” she said during a campaign event in Michigan.
Currently, full-time workers earning $7.25 per hour bring home about $15,000 per year, which Harris described as “essentially poverty wages.”
She also reiterated her plan to raise the federal minimum wage, a promise she made in August when she proposed eliminating federal income taxes on tips.
Harris has often referenced her own summer job at McDonald’s during her youth as a way to connect with the struggles of working Americans.
Meanwhile, Trump has questioned—without providing evidence—whether she actually worked there.
For years, Democrats have pushed for an increase in the federal minimum wage, which has not been raised in 15 years.
Republicans, however, supported by business groups, argue that such an increase would lead to job losses.
According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, workers earning the federal minimum wage are now making 29% less (when adjusted for inflation) than workers in the same position in 2009.
Supporters of increasing the wage argue that the federal rate has fallen far below what is considered a living wage.
The push for a $15 minimum wage gained traction in 2012 through the “Fight for $15” movement, which sought to bring attention to the low wages of workers, especially those in fast food.
The Biden administration initially sought to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour through its pandemic relief package shortly after taking office in 2021.
However, the Senate parliamentarian blocked the proposal from being included in the final legislation.
At the time, a Congressional Budget Office report indicated that raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour would have lifted 900,000 people out of poverty and increased wages for about 27 million workers.
However, the report also noted it would have reduced employment by 1.4 million workers and increased the federal deficit by $54 billion over the next decade.
After facing opposition in Congress, the Biden administration did manage to increase the minimum hourly wage for hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contract workers to $15.
Many states and cities have taken it upon themselves to raise their minimum wage in recent years, with some increases mandated by voter initiatives.
As of now, 30 states and Washington, D.C. have minimum wages above the federal level, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Additionally, 63 localities have set their minimum wages higher than their respective state thresholds.
In response to labor shortages caused by the pandemic, many employers in lower-wage industries have also voluntarily raised their starting wages.
In 2018, Amazon announced that it would pay its U.S. employees at least $15 per hour, followed by Target in 2020.
