Minimum Wage
Federal
The federal minimum wage has not changed since 2009, and many states' minimum wage falls align with the national minimum wage.
State
Minimum wages for each state ranges from the federal wage, up to $11.50 per hour.
The Candidates' Positions
For Increase
Not For Increase?
Increase The Minimum Wage
Hillary Clinton: "I want to raise the federal minimum wage to $12, and encourage other communities to go even higher." Clinton believes that we should go further than the federal minimum through state and local efforts, and workers organizing and bargaining for higher wages, such as the Fight for 15 and recent efforts in Los Angeles and New York to raise their minimum wage to $15.1
Bernie Sanders: "Millions of Americans are working for totally inadequate wages. We must ensure that no full-time worker lives in poverty. The current federal minimum wage is starvation pay and must become a living wage. We must increase it to $15 an hour over the next several years."
Neither For or Against (But Probably Against) Increase
Donald Trump: "I want to create jobs so you don't have to worry about the minimum wage, you're doing a great job making much more than the minimum wage. But I think having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country." Trump has expressed that he does not think the minimum wage should increase.2 "we're going to bring jobs back so much and so many that the minimum wage will hopefully be a figure that people won't want to think about."3