Harris backs $15 minimum wage as Democrats warn of electoral defeat

Kamala Harris has made a surprise announcement that she supports raising the minimum wage to $15 after Democrats began warning she could be headed for defeat.

The US vice president previously declined to say what hourly rate she would return if she won the White House race.

But in an interview with NBC News on Tuesday, Ms Harris said she supported raising the federal minimum for workers to “at least $15 (£11.60) an hour”.

The interview came as America’s leading pollster predicted Donald Trump would win the election.

Nate Silver, the noted statistician and writer, said his “gut” told him the Republican nominee would be returned to the White House on November 5.

“My gut says Donald Trump. And I guess that’s true for a lot of anxious Democrats,” he wrote in the New York Times.

Fears are growing among Democrats that the race is slipping away from Ms. Harris. One strategist said the party should not feel even “slightly optimistic” about the vice president’s prospects.

Trump criticized

On Tuesday, Ms. Harris criticized Trump for avoiding the issue of whether the minimum wage should be raised during a recent campaign stop at a McDonald’s restaurant.

NBC’s Hallie Jackson asked, “Do you have a number? What would you like to see?”

Ms. Harris responded, “Well, at least $15 an hour. But we’re going to work with Congress, right? That’s something that’s going through Congress.”

The figure does not appear on Ms. Harris’ political agenda on her website, but campaign sources noted that it is a grassroots Democratic position she has long supported.

It would represent a significant change from the current federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 (£5.61) an hour.

Democratic campaign strategists are now privately admitting that Ms. Harris is losing ground to Trump in the polls, particularly in Wisconsin and Michigan, as Election Day nears.

“Everybody keeps saying, ‘It’s close.’ Yes, it’s close, but are things trending our way? No. And nobody wants to openly admit that,” one Democratic strategist told The Hill.

They continued: “Could we still win? maybe Should anyone be a little optimistic right now? No.”

Experts suggested Ms. Harris’ decision to make the minimum wage announcement less than two weeks before the Nov. 5 election was prompted by Trump’s appearance at a closed McDonald’s restaurant in suburban Philadelphia on Sunday .

The former president declined to answer directly when asked if he would support a minimum wage increase that would benefit fast-food workers.

No increase in 15 years

Raising the federal minimum wage would require an act of Congress and hasn’t happened in 15 years, the longest time it’s gone without an adjustment, largely because of Republican opposition.

However, the proposal is also not universally popular among Democrats, with fears that it could hurt small businesses.

Only seven US states and Washington DC currently have a minimum wage of $15 or more, including Ms Harris’ home state of California, although several have legislated an increase to reach that figure in the coming years.

However, 20 US states have not raised the minimum beyond the figure imposed by Congress in 2009.

In Minnesota, the home of Ms Harris’ running mate Tim Walz, the minimum wage is $10.50 (£8.12) for large companies and $8.85 (£6.65) for smaller entrepreneurs. It is not clear whether Mr. Walz, the state’s governor, supports an increase to at least $15 an hour.

Experts are divided on the benefits of raising the national minimum wage given the glaring economic disparities between states.

The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, estimated last year that raising the floor to $15 an hour could raise wages for nearly 40 million workers, representing an annual wage increase of up to $8,000 (£6,188) for some of the lowest. – salaried workers.

However, analysts at the Wharton Business School have noted that in the long term it could lead companies to cut their workforce.

Others have pointed out that, given the impact of a rise in income on means-tested benefits, raising wages alone could leave many poor families worse off.

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