Herman Cain: ‘I Don’t Think The Current Minimum Wage Is Necessary’

By Lee Fang on Jun 28, 2011 at 3:15 pm

ThinkProgress filed this report from Story City, IA.

Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain likes to cast himself as the only GOP presidential contender who has not held public office. “Quite frankly, I wear it as a badge of honor that I have not held public office before,” Cain hastold reporters. But Cain actually has substantial political experience: one of his most high-profile jobs was a stint as the top lobbyist for the restaurant and fast food industry.

ThinkProgress spoke briefly with Cain, and asked him to talk some about his role waging a pitched battle during the ’90s against a hike in the minimum wage. Cain said he would address the issue during his talk with GOP activists in Story City, Iowa, and spent a few minutes talking about how he once argued with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) over livable wage legislation. After the event, we asked Cain about the current minimum wage:

FANG: Do you think the current minimum wage is too high or even necessary?

CAIN: I don’t think the current minimum wage is necessary because most companies are paying higher than the minimum wage. Now you can’t say everybody’s paying higher than the minimum wage but a lot of companies [inaudible]

Watch it:

As we tried to talk more to Cain, several of his volunteers physically barricaded the door to prevent us from talking to him.