Thom Tillis, the speaker of the North Carolina state House and a Republican challenger to U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan,
isn't quite saying he wants to abolish the minimum wage outright. But only because "you can’t unring that bell." As for raising the minimum wage, Tillis is obviously opposed. But this is the best part:
Asked what he considered a living wage, Tillis dodged. He pivoted to say private industry ought to answer the question.
“I think for the most part the market needs to define that,” he answered. “When we create artificial thresholds then you run into a big problem. And I think we need to know that a segment of the population relies on minimum wage, but there are a lot of jobs that go beyond the minimum wage.”
We could argue that the market does define what's a living wage right this very minute. The housing market determines how much money you need to have a roof over your head, the grocery market determines how much money you need to feed yourself, and so on. But of course Tillis isn't talking about the private market defining how much money people
need to survive, he's talking about the private market defining how much people
get in exchange for their work. And right now, we have a minimum wage that falls below what people need to survive, and plenty of employers taking advantage of that. Which leads to other things Republicans get upset about, like people requiring government assistance to get by.
But when you're a Republican Senate candidate, the bar for making sense is low, and "the market" is something of a get out of jail free card.