President Trump signaled he was not sure about whether he would support a recent proposal led by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.
“I haven’t seen it. I’d have to speak to Josh. He’s a very good friend of mine,” Trump said Wednesday from the Oval Office after a reporter asked whether he supported the move. “That’s interesting that Josh did that. You have to think about that one.”
Alongside Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Hawley introduced the Higher Wages for American Workers Act last week.
If passed, the legislation would more than double the current federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15.00 per hour.
Currently, at least 31 states require businesses to pay most workers above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour — including Hawley’s home state of Missouri.
“Some people agree with it. Some people don’t,” Trump added while speaking to reporters from the Resolute Desk. “You know, some people say it really turns away business, restaurants, clothes and a lot of things happen. Other people agree. I’d have to speak to Josh — he’s a good guy.”
Hawley has framed the raise to the minimum wage as “a populist position.”
“If we’re going to be a working people’s party, we have to do something for working people,” the senator told NBC News after the bill was introduced last week. “And working people haven’t gotten a raise in years. So they need a raise.”
Hawley’s somewhat surprising move to support an increase to the federal minimum wage follows other moves he has made in an effort to push an economic populist agenda.
Hawley partnered with progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in February to introduce legislation that seeks to cap credit card interest rates at 10%.
On Tuesday, Hawley voted alongside progressives like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sanders and against the majority of Republicans when he declined to support legislation that imposes regulations on the cryptocurrency market, which critics fear will benefit institutional players at the cost of smaller investors.
Hawley’s office declined to comment for this story.
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