Clinton backs $12 minimum wage

Hillary Clinton is supporting a $12 per hour minimum wage.

Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, announced her support for the $12 minimum during a campaign stop in Coralville, Iowa, according to Reuters.

{mosads}“I want to raise the federal minimum wage to $12, and encourage other communities to go even higher,” she said. 

Clinton previously had hinted at support for the $12 per hour minimum wage, but had avoided taking a specific position. 

Both Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-Md.) have voiced support for a $15 minimum wage earlier this year. Sanders has sought to pressure Clinton to support a $15 per hour minimum wage.

The issue is quickly gaining steam as a campaign issue after some cities and municipalities have increased their rates above the federal minimum.

Progressive have long backed the $15 rate nationwide as a means of addressing income inequality.

More moderate Democrats, however, worry that a steeper hike would eliminate some jobs.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has embraced the $12 federal minimum as more practical politically.

President Obama, for his part, eventually backed that standard after it gradually increased from $9 to $10.10 earlier in his tenure.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she would back the $15 standard nationwide.

“Twelve dollars may be what can pass, but I’m for $15 an hour,” she said in late July.

Obama and Reid voiced support earlier this year for a proposal sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) making the federal minimum wage $12 hourly by 2020.

Sanders, meanwhile, introduced legislation last summer proposing the $15 level for the same year.

The Vermont lawmaker has repeatedly used the issue as a means of differentiating himself from Clinton.

Two GOP presidential candidates – former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson – have also said they would raise the federal minimum wage.

Santorum has backed an increase of 50 cents a year for three years, while Carson remains uncommitted to a specific number.    

– Updated at 6:39 p.m.