Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said Tuesday that he does not think the minimum wage “serves a purpose,” but has no intention to repeal it.
“Well I’m not going to repeal it, but I don’t think it serves a purpose, because we’re debating then about what the lowest levels are at,” Walker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s editorial board.
{mosads}”I want people to make, like I said the other night, two or three times that.”
During a debate last week, Walker sidestepped a question about whether people could support themselves on the minimum wage, instead arguing that he wanted to bring jobs that could pay much more.
Walker is a potential 2016 presidential candidate, but first needs to get through a tough reelection battle this year with Democratic businesswoman Mary Burke.
Burke supports raising the minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 an hour, to $10.10 an hour, as President Obama and Democrats have proposed on the national level.
Congressional Republicans have blocked a minimum wage increase, arguing it will cost jobs, although the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, said in May that he supports an increase.
A Marquette University poll last month found that voters in Wisconsin support raising the minimum wage by a 59 to 36 percent margin.
Walker emphasized that he supports programs to attract higher-paying jobs.
“The jobs I focus on, the programs we put in place, the training we put in place, is not for people to get minimum wage jobs,” he said in the interview Tuesday.
“Whether it’s in apprenticeships, whether it’s our tech colleges, whether it’s our [University of Wisconsin] system — it’s to try and provide the training, the skills, the talents, the expertise that people need to create careers that pay many, many times over.”