President Obama took credit Wednesday for moves by state and local governments to raise the minimum wage, saying the activists who successfully fought for the increases were inspired by him.
He made the comments at a White House event to promote organized labor dubbed the “Summit on Worker Voice.”
“We’ve done a lot of work on these issues — extending overtime protections, helping workers collect fair pay that they’ve earned, ensuring paid sick leave for federal contractors. Seventeen states and 30 cities and counties so far have answered my call to raise the minimum wage,” Obama said.
The administration has supported a higher minimum wage, backing a Democratic congressional proposal in 2013 for an increase from the current federal rate of $7.25 to $10.20 an hour. Earlier this year, it endorsed a new Democratic proposal to raise the rate to $12 an hour.
The extent that most of the local activists and lawmakers involved in raising the rates at the state and local levels were acting on the president’s inspiration is not clear. For one thing, most have pursued increases far higher than what Obama has endorsed. The rates in San Franciso, Sea-Tac and Los Angeles and Los Angeles County were all raised to $15 an hour. Activists have pursued $15 minimums in several other places as well.
The White House has not endorsed that rate. Vice President Joe Biden appeared at an event in New York last month, applauding New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for endorsing a $15 minimum wage for his state. The vice president said that would not be a good idea nationally, though, reiterating the White House’s support for a $12 minimum.
Biden told Cuomo that he was “leading the way” for other governors on the minimum wage issue. “The single most important thing you can do to counter this [economy’s wage] inequity is what the governor did today,” he said.
