Rap star Cardi B interviewed presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and asked about wages in America, prompting Sanders to push his goal of implementing a federal $15 minimum wage.
The “I Like It” rapper posted a clip of her interview with the socialist senator to her 49 million Instagram followers Tuesday, writing, “A couple of weeks ago I asked my followers if you all had the chance to ask a Democratic candidate a question, what would that question be? The topic that was mentioned the most by all of you was about raising MINIMUM WAGE.”
The conversation with Cardi B opened the door for Sanders to promote his political goal of implementing a federal $15 minimum wage.
“Legislation that I’ve introduced – which was passed in the House recently, the U.S. House – would raise that minimum wage to $15 an hour,” Bernie Sanders said. “And what we also have to do is make it easier for workers to join unions so they can sit down and engage in collective bargaining and earn a decent living.”
The Grammy-winner opened the conversation, asking Sanders, “What are we going to do about wages in America?” Cardi B explained how she struggled to make ends meet prior to her life of fame, thus opening the door for Sanders, who blasted what he considers “starvation wages.”
“That is an excellent and important question because right now we have tens of millions of people who are earning what I consider to be starvation wages,” Sanders explained. “Can you imagine somebody today earning $9 an hour?”
“It don’t make no sense,” Cardi B said, adding that the job boom in America is not necessarily a good thing because “they pay practically nothing.”
Sanders’ push for a $15 minimum wage has been met with fierce criticism. Job Creators Network’s Elaine Parker warned in July that the House-passed $15 federal minimum wage measure would hurt American workers. She echoed the findings of a Congressional Budget Office report, which found that the hike would destroy 1.3 million jobs. It could also cause up to 3.7 million workers to lose their jobs altogether, according to the report.
“In another step in their socialist agenda, House Democrats pushed through a bill that will force up to 3.7 million Americans to lose their jobs and wreck our economy,” Job Creators Network President and CEO Alfredo Ortiz said in a press release following the passage of the bill.
There are countless examples of a mandated $15 wage failing on smaller scales.
New York business owners have admitted that the mandated $15 minimum wage is not feasible. It has forced many of them to cut staff, raise the prices of their products, or – worse – shut down altogether.
As Breitbart News reported:
Susannah Koteen, the owner of Lido Restaurant in Harlem, said the minimum wage has directly impacted her business, and she worries that it could get worse as time goes by.
“What it really forces you to do is make sure that nobody works more than 40 hours,” Koteen told reporters. “You can only cut back so many people before the service starts to suffer.”
Thomas Grech, president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, said he has seen an increase in small-business closures since the $15 minimum wage was implemented at the beginning of the year.
“They’re cutting their staff. They’re cutting their hours. They’re shutting down,” he commented. “It’s not just the rent.”
Sanders’ campaign went through the wringer last month after staffers wrote a letter, explaining that they “cannot be expected to build the largest grassroots organizing program in American history while making poverty wages.”
While they eventually reached an agreement with the campaign, Sanders initially floated limiting employee hours.
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