Sen. Kevin Cramer decried efforts to raise the federal minimum wage, questioning whether a nationwide wage floor should exist at all.

"I don't even know why we have a quote 'federal minimum' wage to be honest," the North Dakota lawmaker said, referring to the current rate of $7.25 an hour, unchanged since 2009.

"Where I come from in North Dakota, businesses are fortunate if they can get someone for less than $15," he said on Fox News. "I think the market works really well."

Cramer argued that increasing the minimum wage, particularly to $15 an hour, would limit opportunities for entry-level workers.

"You reduce the number of people who can get a beginner's job — work at a fast food restaurant, whatever the case might be, in the service sector or otherwise," he said. "I just think manipulating markets with mandatory wages doesn't make any sense."

The senator's comments come amid ongoing debate over wage standards and cost-of-living disparities across states.

In 2024, the average fair market rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in the U.S. was $1,390, but the rent affordable to one full-time worker earning federal minimum was $377, according to Statista.

The federal minimum wage was enacted in 1938 under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which also granted workers a 40-hour work week, set overtime pay at "time-and-a-half," and banned "oppressive child labor." The hard-won legislation was part of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.

"Do not let any calamity-howling executive with an income of $1,000 a day, ...tell you...that a wage of $11 a week is going to have a disastrous effect on all American industry," FDR said in 1938.

While Democrats continue to push for a higher federal baseline, many Republicans maintain that wages should be determined locally by market conditions rather than federal mandate.

Originally published on Latin Times

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