Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he would like to raise the federal minimum wage to $10 an hour up from the current $7.25 per hour.
Partial transcript as follows:
O’REILLY: What about the minimum wage? You got hammered on that by Bernie Sanders last night. What’s your vision for federal minimum wage? How much?
TRUMP: Well, he lied last night. I mean, it was a total lie, and everybody said it. In fact, some of the folks on your network said wow, that was really a lie. He said I want to do go less than minimum wage is a new one. I’m the Republican that said in some cases we have to go more than minimum wage.
O’REILLY: Give me a number.
TRUMP: No. Let me give you a concept because I think it’s a good concept. You go with the states. Let the states make the determination. because if you take New York, it’s very expensive to live in New York. And they need more than, you know, $7, 8, 9 so you go with the states.
O’REILLY: The states have the authority now to do that.
TRUMP: They do.
O’REILLY: There has to be a federal minimum wage. What would you set the federal minimum wage at?
TRUMP: There doesn’t have to be. I would leave it and raise it somewhat. You need to help people. I know it’s not very Republican to say.
O’REILLY: Give me, 10 bucks?
TRUMP: I would say 10. I would say 10. But, with the understanding that somebody like me is going to bring back jobs, I don’t want people to be in that $10 category for very long. But, the thing is, Bill, let the states make the deal.
O’REILLY: They’re not doing that right now because you could have a state that raises it to 15 and I would also, and this is just an aside, teenagers could make a little bit less, you know, first job if you are 17, you know, to get them in the workforce. anyway, let’s go on to –
TRUMP: Let me just finish because a friend of mine is a very tremendous employer and what he did is he said by raising it and by doing certain things it took the incentive. He pays people incentive basis if they are really good he gives them incentive. Nobody has ever heard of this before and a lot of companies do it. And by raising it they already get the incentive. No, I believe it should be raised but when Bernie Sanders said I want to go less than what the minimum wage, I mean, honestly, Bill, these people are lying so much. and every fact checker said …
O’REILLY: So we have you on record $10 minimum wage federally and states can do what they want.
TRUMP: You have me on record saying the states are going to raise it higher than that.
O’REILLY: Yeah and they can if they want.
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