The federal minimum wage interferes with the free market, ultimately denying the real value of earnings for Americans, according to those who want to abandon minimum wage laws.
Some Republicans focus on new approaches while others would like to leave minimum wage issues up to the states. Here are seven quotes from Republican lawmakers on the federal minimum wage issue:
1. "I don't believe there ought to be a national minimum wage," former Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program in 2014,
according to Salon.
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"The fact is if you look at ... the good economic models, the benefit is small. The cost of lost jobs is great," Coburn said. "It goes against the free market principle. We don't know what the minimum wage should be. How'd they pick $10.10? Why not $22? Why not $100?"
2. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said he would abolish the federal minimum wage while discussing the issue during a Congressional hearing,
according to The Huffington Post.
"The question I want to ask, if we are interested in social justice, and we want to honor work instead of getting a welfare check, then wouldn't a more efficient way to help people in poverty be to increase the earned-income tax credit rather than do what we always do here, which is come up with a big idea and send the bill to somebody else?"
3. "I think it actually is counterproductive in many ways," Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said about the minimum wage,
according to Think Progress.
"Look, I wish we could just pass a law saying everybody should make more money without any adverse consequences," he said. "The problem is you're costing jobs from those who are just trying to get entry level jobs."
4. "The question is, is a minimum wage the best way to do it?" asked Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
"And history has said the answer is absolutely not. In fact, the impact of minimum wage usually is that businesses hire less people," Sen. Rubio said according to Think Progress.
"That's the impact of it. They'll just hire less people to do the same amount of work ... We have a lot of history to prove that the minimum wage, raising the minimum wage does not grow the middle class."
5. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush voiced his opposition to a federal minimum wage during a South Carolina event shown on YouTube.
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"We need to leave it to the private sector," he said.
According to an article published on The Hill, Bush added, "I think state minimum wages are fine. The federal government shouldn't be doing this."
6. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a possible 2016 presidential candidate, has even questioned state minimum wage laws,
according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
"I want jobs that pay two or three times the minimum wage," Walker said. "The way you do that is not by (setting) an arbitrary amount by the state."
7. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, on the other hand, has continued to try to reach an agreement on the amount of the federal
minimum wage, according to The Hill.
"There is a huge area of compromise here between $7.25 and $10.10," Collins said. "I think it speaks to what's wrong with Washington today that we were put in a situation of take it or leave it."
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