Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush expressed his opinion on Tuesday that minimum wage increases should be left to businesses and state governments and that a hike in the federal pay floor would be an impediment to individuals trying to escape from poverty.
“State minimum wages are fine,” said Bush while in South Carolina, the state that holds the initial Southern primary of the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. The South Carolina primary will be held next February, a few weeks after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
Bush’s history clearly elucidates his beliefs in the matter. As governor of Florida, Bush opposed a 2004 ballot measure approved by voters that tied increases in the state minimum wage to inflation. When asked about the minimum wage at a pair of appearances on Tuesday, Bush said that while he does not want to abolish the existing federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, he opposes raising it.
“We’re moving to a world where it’s sticky in the ends, where it’s harder for people in poverty to move up, and where the rich are doing really well, and the middle is getting squeezed,” Bush said at his first stop of the day in Greenville. “Any idea that perpetuates that is one that I would oppose, and I think this minimum wage idea is exactly one of those things.”
Bush has yet to formally declare his intention to run for president in 2016, but hinted towards his intentions during a Chamber of Commerce breakfast when he told the crowd “you’ll be seeing a lot of me.”
