Subject: Fwd: CLIP | Bloomberg Politics: Hillary Clinton Expresses Support for Higher Minimum Wage
From: Brian Fallon <[email-masked]>
To: John Podesta <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2015 12:51:55 -0400

This one came out well, I think - emphasizing her support for a higher min
wage but getting it right that she hasn't endorsed 15 yet. Maggie's is
still to come.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Varun Anand <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 12:06 PM
Subject: CLIP | Bloomberg Politics: Hillary Clinton Expresses Support for
Higher Minimum Wage
To: Clips <[email-masked]>

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-06-08/hillary-clinton-expresses-support-for-higher-minimum-wage

By Jen Epstein

Hillary Clinton wants to see a boost in the minimum wage, and said as
much over the weekend as she heaped praise on a group of fast-food
workers who support a $15 hourly rate.

What she didn’t say: Whether she supports raising the minimum wage to
$15 from the current $7.25.

Clinton is at the tail end of the policy-focused yet vague first phase
of her presidential campaign, during which she's spoken in support of
general policy positions while holding back specifics. Her aides
stress that her first two months of campaigning have been about
hearing from Americans, and promise that detailed proposals and
positions are on the way.

But as Clinton addressed the Service Employees International Union's
Fight for $15 convention in Detroit by phone on Sunday, she hinted
that she is on board with the union and much of organized labor. At
the start of her brief comments, she thanked union President Mary Kay
Henry for "giving me this chance to tell you all how much I support
your movement."

Still, Clinton never specifically said she backs the $15 an hour minimum
wage.

“I believe fast-food workers and child care workers and home care
workers and adjunct professors—all of you should not have to march in
the street to get a living wage, but thank you for marching in the
streets to get that living wage," she said, according to a transcript
provided by her campaign.

“We need you out there saying loudly and clearly—no one, no one who
works an honest job in America should have to live in poverty. We need
you out there leading the fight against those who would rip away
Americans' right to organize, to collective bargaining, to fair play,"
she continued. "No man or woman who works hard to feed America's
families should have to be on food stamps to feed your own families."

Clinton is expected to begin filling in the details on minimum wage
and about a dozen other economic issues over the summer, building a
platform that will lead her into the fall’s primary debates and
beyond.

Supporting anything less than $15 an hour would create a point of
friction since Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former Maryland
Governor Martin O’Malley have already staked out that position. It
could also prove problematic as Clinton courts labor and other groups
that have also begun gravitating toward a $15 minimum wage. The Obama
administration supports a $12 federal minimum wage.

While $15 seems like the right position to take for the Democratic
primary, it may be too high a floor for some general election voters.

In late May, a New York Times/CBS News poll found that 71 percent of
Americans  supported raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10.  Just
38 percent of those surveyed wanted to raise the rate to $15, though
56 percent of Democrats supported the idea.

Republican presidential hopefuls, meanwhile, range from saying the
current federal rate is fine but unnecessary to wanting to abolish it
entirely.

“We need to leave it to the private sector,” former Florida Governor
Jeb Bush said in March. “I think state minimum wages are fine. The
federal government shouldn’t be doing this.”