In an interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl and Politico’s Mike Allen, Alaska Republican senate candidate Joe Miller said he didn’t support the federal minimum wage, arguing that states should decide on minimum wage laws.
Saying that legislating a federal minimum wage was not “within the scope of the powers that are given to the federal government,” Miller mentioned how Alaska had decided to enact a higher minimum wage than the federal government set. “The minimum level again should be the state’s decision,” he said.
Miller’s objections against the federal minimum wage are rooted in his overall philosophy that the federal government should do only what the Constitution explicitly mentions as part of its role. “What we have is something that we call the 10th amendment that says, look if it’s not there if it’s not enumerated, then it’s delegated to the states. Everything that’s not there is reserved to the states and the people,” Miller argued.
He also said that unemployment benefits should not be handled by the federal government, but by state governments — and talked about how making policy decisions at state level created “more accountability, [and] less inefficiency.”