Kamala Harris Wants To Raise The Minimum Wage. But How High?

Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign posted a page full of policy positions on Monday, and it was no surprise that the vice president supports raising the federal minimum wage.

But how high does she think it should go?

The campaign website does not offer a number, and a campaign spokesperson declined to give specifics when HuffPost asked Monday morning.

The federal minimum wage is just $7.25 per hour and prevails in any state that doesn’t mandate a higher one. It hasn’t been raised in 15 years, primarily due to Republican opposition.

The general public broadly supports giving it a boost, and many states, including red ones, have done so in the absence of congressional action. Some state rates are now more than double the federal level.

But Democrats aren’t in total agreement on what the nationwide target should be. Harris might want to avoid getting pinned down on a particular number and alienating supporters who think it should be either higher or lower than what she proposes.

Democrats once coalesced around $15, thanks to the success of the union-backed Fight for $15 campaign, which began in fast food in 2012 and later spread to other low-wage sectors. But many progressives now say a yearslong phase-in toward $15 would be insufficient, especially following a period of elevated inflation, which has blunted some of the influence of minimum wage policy.

Last year, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) proposed hiking the federal wage floor to $17 in five years and eliminating the “tipped” minimum wage that allows restaurants to pay servers as little as $2.13 per hour before gratuities. Harris also supports ditching the tipped minimum wage, according to her policy page.

Sanders’ bill, the Raise the Wage Act , gained 31