Ben Carson changed his position on the minimum wage during Tuesday night’s GOP presidential debate.
In May, Carson expressed a desire to raise the minimum wage. On Tuesday night, Carson came out against increasing the minimum wage.
“Every time we raise the minimum wage the number of jobless people increases; it’s particularly a problem in the black community,” Carson said on Tuesday. “I can remember as a youngster, you know my first job working in a laboratory as a lab assistant, and multiple other jobs, but I would not have gotten those jobs if someone had to pay me a large amount of money.”
Carson’s explicit statement that, “I would not raise it,” stands in stark contrast to what he said six months ago. The retired neurosurgeon told CNBC, “I think, probably, it should be higher than now.”
“In several states you can get as much or more on government assistance as you can by working on a minimum wage job,” Carson said shortly after launching his candidacy. “I don’t necessarily blame people for saying, ‘Look, I can stay home and make this money, or I can go and work this little chicken job that doesn’t have many benefits.’ ”
The doctor’s new solution comes as his campaign has become a fundraising juggernaut within the GOP. It raised more than any other Republican candidate during the third quarter, according to the reports it filed with the Federal Election Commission. Carson, who ranks second in the Washington Examiner‘s GOP presidential power rankings, has risen to the top of several national polls and may not want to alienate newfound supporters.
