- Trump said on Sunday that he'd consider trying to raise the federal minimum wage.
- Some Republicans have come around to the idea, including VP-elect JD Vance.
- It's likely to run into significant opposition in Congress — from members of the GOP.
Over the weekend, President-elect Donald Trump said he'd consider raising the federal minimum wage, saying that the current rate of $7.25 per hour is a "very low number."
"There is a level at which you could do it, absolutely," Trump said in an interview with NBC on Sunday, declining to commit to a particular dollar amount. "I would consider it. I'd want to speak to the governors."
As the GOP has sought to refashion itself as a working-class party, several Republicans have proposed increases to the federal minimum wage. Vice President-elect JD Vance cosponsored a bill in 2023 that would raise it to $11 per hour, while Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri has proposed mandating a $15 minimum wage at companies that generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue.
While Vance and Hawley have led the charge for a more economically populist GOP agenda, their point of view remains unpopular within a party that's full of free-market enthusiasts and broadly supportive of business interests.
"If we're going to take a look at it, we should repeal it," Rep. Eric Burlison, a Missouri Republican who sits on the House Education and Workforce Committee, told BI of the federal minimum wage. "I don't think it should exist."
Despite Trump's comments, it's not clear that the president-elect views the minimum wage as a priority at all. He did not pursue an increase during his first term, he threatened to veto a 2019 Democratic bill that would raise it to $15, and he dodged a question on the topic during his McDonald's photo-op in October.
He has long struck a more open-minded note on the topic than many Republicans, backing a $10 minimum wage during his 2016 campaign and saying he'd consider a $15 minimum wage during a 2020 presidential debate. That gives more populist-minded Republicans hope that Trump, if he chose to spend political capital on the issue, could push the party to embrace a higher minimum wage.
After all, he's managed to break long-standing GOP orthodoxy on trade and foreign policy.
"These people wouldn't do two-thirds of what we're going to do in the next two years if it were not for Trump," said Hawley. "Let's be honest."
The Trump-Vance transition did not respond to a request for comment.
Not an 'area of emphasis' for the GOP
Any minimum wage increase would require an act of Congress, and Republicans in both the House and Senate told BI on Tuesday that they were against it. They generally echoed long-standing party dogma on the topic, arguing that wages are best determined by market forces and that any increase would simply trigger soaring prices.
"I don't think the federal government should be in that business," said Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas. "Let the markets go figure out how we can do this stuff."
Republicans aren't unanimously opposed to a minimum wage increase. The proposal that Vance backed — the "Higher Wages for American Workers Act" — is also supported by Republican senators like Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Bill Cassidy of Lousiana. Aside from increasing the minimum wage to $11 over the course of several years, that bill would also require companies to verify whether their employees are authorized to work in the United States — a priority for many Republicans.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia — a member of Senate GOP leadership who also supports the bill — told BI on Tuesday that she doesn't expect any movement on that bill in the next Congress, and that she hoped "rising economic growth" triggered by Trump's policies would organically cause wages to rise.
"I just don't see that's going to be an area of emphasis that we're going to go to," said Capito.
A federal minimum wage increase would be popular. Polling has consistently shown a sizable share of Republicans support the idea, and several Republican-leaning states have approved minimum wage increases via ballot measures in recent years.
At the same time, few people still make $7.25 per hour. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, just 1.1% of hourly paid workers were at or below the federal minimum wage in 2023. Most states have enacted higher minimum wages, and some cities have gone even higher.
"The question is, is there a need?" Republican Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania said. "Honestly, when you look around the country, positions that used to be minimum wage are now paying $15, $16, $17 an hour."
President Joe Biden supports a $15 federal minimum wage, but was unable to get it enacted due to opposition from several Democratic senators in 2021.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, meanwhile, has proposed an increase to $17.