Real estate mogul Donald Trump flatly opposed raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour during Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate, arguing that the country’s wages are already “too high.”
Fox Business Host and debate moderator Neil Cavuto asked Trump whether he was sympathetic to protesters demanding a $15 per hour minimum wage, which works out to about $31,000 per year. Cavuto noted that the billionaire’s tax plan stipulates couples earning up to $50,000 a year would be exempt from federal income taxes.
“I can’t be, Neil,” Trump responded.
“Taxes too high, wages too high,” he later added. “We’re not going to be able to compete against the world. I hate to say it, but we have to leave it the way it is. People have to go out, they have to work really hard and they have to get into that upper stratum. But we cannot do this if we are going to compete with the rest of the world. We just can’t do it.”
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