In recently re-surfaced audio, Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner admitted that he previously supported eliminating the state’s minimum wage.
It’s the first time Rauner is known to have gone on the record saying that the Illinois’s $8.25 minimum wage should be done away with completely.
On January 10, in an interview with WJBC-AM in Bloomington, Rauner said that he has said the minimum wage should either be reduced to something below the national minimum wage or completely eliminated.
“I have said, on a number of occasions, that we could have a lower minimum wage or no minimum wage as part of increasing Illinois’ competitiveness. I’ve said that many times,” Rauner said to WJBC host Scott Laughlin.
But Rauner admitted that focusing on this previous position was “a mistake” and that “there are better ways to increase Illinois’ competitiveness.”
The audio’s resurfacing comes as Gov. Pat Quinn (D), who Rauner is hoping to defeat in the general election, plans to go a week living on the minimum wage to help highlight his push to raise the state’s minimum wage. Rauner is the frontrunner in the general election.
A few days before the WJBC interview in January Rauner said that he wanted to lower the minimum wage instead of increasing it. He quickly backtracked on that.
Listen to the audio of Rauner, via the Sun-Times, below:
The TPM Polltracker average gives Rauner a 8.5 point lead over Quinn.
