Donald Trump Calls for $10 Hourly Minimum Wage, Breaks From GOP Position

Republican nominee flip-flops from his position, which has evolved over the past several months.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called for a federal minimum wage of $10 an hour, departing from his past positions and his own party and moving more in line with Democrats.

“I would like to raise it to at least $10,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday during a press conference at his golf course in Doral, Florida. It wasn’t clear initially if he meant the federal minimum wage or the wage floors set by states. But when asked to clarify, he said he was talking about the federal minimum wage.

Where to set the federal minimum wage—now at $7.25—has been a hotly debated topic during the presidential election, with clashes occurring not just between Democrats and Republicans but also within the Democratic Party.

By calling for the federal increase, Mr. Trump is breaking from the GOP position that states and localities should be left to set their own pay floors, but that the main force should be the labor market itself.

While the new Republican platform says people are struggling in an economy that “has become unnecessarily weak with stagnant wages,” it says the minimum wage “is an issue that should be handled at the state and local level.”

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