• Trump said on Sunday that he'd consider trying to raise the federal minimum wage.
• Some Republicans have come around to the idea, including VP-elect JD Vance.
• It's likely to run into significant opposition in Congress — from members of the GOP.

Over the weekend, President-elect Donald Trump said he'd consider raising the federal minimum wage, saying that the current rate of $7.25 per hour is a "very low number."

"There is a level at which you could do it, absolutely," Trump said in an interview with NBC on Sunday, declining to commit to a particular dollar amount. "I would consider it. I'd want to speak to the governors."

As the GOP has sought to refashion itself as a working-class party, several Republicans have proposed increases to the federal minimum wage. Vice President-elect JD Vance cosponsored a bill in 2023 that would raise it to $11 per hour, while Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri has proposed mandating a $15 minimum wage at companies that generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

While Vance and Hawley have led the charge for a more economically populist GOP agenda, their point of view remains unpopular within a party that's full of free-market enthusiasts and broadly supportive of business interests.

"If we're going to take a look at it, we should repeal it," Rep. Eric Burlison, a Missouri Republican who sits on the House Education and Workforce Committee, told BI of the federal minimum wage. "I don't think it should exist."

Despite Trump's comments, it's not clear that the president-elect views the minimum wage as a priority at all. He did not pursue an increase during his first term, he threatened to veto a 2019 Democratic bill that would raise it to $15, and he dodged a question on the topic during his McDonald's photo-op in October.

He has long struck a more open-minded note on the topic than many Republicans, backing a $10 minimum wage during his 2016 campaign and saying he'd consider a $15 minimum wage during a 2020 presidential debate. That gives more populist-minded Republicans hope that Trump, if he chose to spend political capital on the issue, could push the party to embrace a higher minimum wage.

After all, he's managed to break long-standing GOP orthodoxy on trade and foreign policy.

"These people wouldn't do two-thirds of what we're going to do in the next two years if it were not for Trump," said Hawley. "Let's be honest."

The Trump-Vance transition did not respond to a request for comment.

Not an 'area of emphasis' for the GOP

Any minimum wage increase would require an act of Congress, and Republicans in both the House and Senate told BI on Tuesday that they were against it. They generally echoed long-standing party dogma on the topic, arguing that wages are best determined by market forces and that any increase would simply trigger soaring prices.

"I don't think the federal government should be in that business," said Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas. "Let the markets go figure out how we can do this stuff."

Republicans aren't unanimously opposed to a minimum wage increase. The proposal that Vance backed — the "Higher Wages for American Workers Act" — is also supported by Republican senators like Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Bill Cassidy of Lousiana. Aside from increasing the minimum wage to $11 over the course of several years, that bill would also require companies to verify whether their employees are authorized to work in the United States — a priority for many Republicans.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia — a member of Senate GOP leadership who also supports the bill — told BI on Tuesday that she doesn't expect any movement on that bill in the next Congress, and that she hoped "rising economic growth" triggered by Trump's policies would organically cause wages to rise.

"I just don't see that's going to be an area of emphasis that we're going to go to," said Capito.

A federal minimum wage increase would be popular. Polling has consistently shown a sizable share of Republicans support the idea, and several Republican-leaning states have approved minimum wage increases via ballot measures in recent years.

At the same time, few people still make $7.25 per hour. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, just 1.1% of hourly paid workers were at or below the federal minimum wage in 2023. Most states have enacted higher minimum wages, and some cities have gone even higher.

"The question is, is there a need?" Republican Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania said. "Honestly, when you look around the country, positions that used to be minimum wage are now paying $15, $16, $17 an hour."

President Joe Biden supports a $15 federal minimum wage, but was unable to get it enacted due to opposition from several Democratic senators in 2021.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, meanwhile, has proposed an increase to $17.

• President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview that he "would consider" raising the federal minimum wage.
• It has been at $7.25 per hour since 2009; however, 30 states and DC have increased their minimum above the federal level.
• Here's where it stands in every state and the raises both parties have proposed.

President-elect Donald Trump said he'd consider raising the federal minimum wage. It's been $7.25 per hour since 2009, though 30 states and a slew of cities have adopted higher rates.

"It's a very low number," Trump said in an interview with "Meet the Press" that aired on December 8. While he didn't commit to a specific level, he said that a federal minimum of $8 or $9 "might have very little effect" because of the low cost of living in some areas.

Any raises to the federal minimum wage would directly affect workers in at least the 20 states where, as of July, the minimum wage was at or below the federal level, per the Department of Labor. Most minimum wage jobs are in the service sector, largely in food preparation and serving-related positions.

Washington, DC, has a higher minimum wage than any state in the country at $17.50, though some US cities have raised it even more. Washington state, with a minimum wage of $16.28, and California, with a minimum wage of $16, came in second and third, respectively.

On January 1, 21 states — and 48 cities and counties — are set to see their minimum wages increase, mostly as a result of existing laws, per the National Employment Law Project. In the most recent election, Missouri voted to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026, and Alaska voted to hike its minimum to $15 by mid-2027.

The last federal minimum increase was in July 2009, from $6.55 to $7.25. Since then, overall prices based on the consumer price index have gone up around 47% in the US as of November.

Trump pointed out in his "Meet the Press" interview that the cost of living varies across the country, and a federal wage might not be a one-size-fits-all solution.

"The other thing that is very complicated about minimum wage is places are so different," he said. "Mississippi and Alabama and great places are very different than New York or California in terms of the cost of living and other things."

Indeed, regional price parities data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis show that Mississippi and Alabama had among the lowest costs of living in the country in 2023, while California and New York were more expensive than the national average. Alabama and Mississippi don't have state minimum wage laws. The minimum wage in New York is $16 in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester, and $15 for the rest of the state.

While Trump said wage changes like California's — which hiked it to $20 for fast food workers in April — might go too far, "there is a level at which you could do it, absolutely." He said before making any changes, he'd want to speak to governors.

President Joe Biden backed a $15 wage, which every Republican senator and eight Democrats ultimately voted against. Some lawmakers on the left have gone even further, with Sen. Bernie Sanders pushing to raise the wage to $17 by 2028.

Some Republicans have also proposed raising the federal minimum wage. While he was still in the Senate, Vice President-elect JD Vance cosponsored a bill to gradually increase it to $11, although that bill also includes additional measures like raising penalties on employers that hire workers living in the country illegally.

The Trump-Vance transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on Trump's potential plans for the minimum wage.