U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) argued in favor of raising the federal minimum wage to fifty dollars an hour during Monday night’s California Senate debate.
Lee is currently one of three California House Democrats who is seeking to fill the late Diane Feinstein’s seat in November, the others being Reps. Adam Schiff and Katie Porter. Baseball legend Steve Garvey is also running as a Republican, though the seat is seen as a near lock for Democrats.
The three Democrat candidates have frequently tried to outflank each other to the left, with Lee’s call for a $50 minimum wage standing out as one of the more bizarre policy platforms proposed throughout the course of the race.
Lee’s proposal would make it so that full-time minimum wage workers would earn $104,000 annually. She attempted to defend the plan during Monday night’s debate — much to the confusion of both the moderators and her opponents.
“First, let me say, I owned and ran a small business for 11 years. I created hundreds of jobs. Benefits, retirement benefits, also health care benefits. I know what worker productivity means, and that means that you have to make sure that your employees are taken care of and have a living wage,” Lee said.
“I believe it was the United Way, came out with a report that very recently, $127,000 for a family of four is just barely enough to get by. Another survey very recently, 104,000 for a family of one, barely enough to get by. Low income, because of the affordability crisis. And so just do the math. Just do the math,” she continued.
The longtime congresswoman then dismissed her opponents’ proposals as insufficient, saying that she has “got to be focused on what California needs and what the affordability factor is when we calculate this wage.”
The federal minimum wage is currently set at $7.25 an hour, though a number of states have set their own requirements. In California, the minimum wage rate is currently set at $16 an hour, though it is slightly higher for fast food and healthcare workers.
