Donald Trump said on Wednesday he is open to raising the minimum wage, despite previous statements opposing such a change.
When asked by CNN if he would consider raising the minimum wage, Trump said he was "looking at that" and "open to doing something with it."
"So Bernie Sanders he says he wants $15 an hour minimum wage and he’s really gone after you lately for saying you’re happy with $7.25, the current federal minimum wage," CNN host Wolf Blitzer said. "You can’t live on $7.25 an hour."
"No, and I’m actually looking at that because I’m very different from most Republicans," Trump said. "I mean you have to have something that you can live on, but what I’m really looking to do is get people great jobs so they make much more money than that so they make more money than the $15."
"Now if you start playing around too much with a lower level number you’re not going to be competitive," Trump said.
Trump did not provide specifics when asked how high of a minimum wage he would consider, but said he was looking into the matter.
Trump was last asked in November whether he would raise the minimum wage. He said then that the minimum wage should stay the same.
"But, taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world," Trump said. "I hate to say it, but we have to leave it the way it is."
"People have to go out, they have to work really hard and have to get into that upper stratum," Trump said. "But we cannot do this if we are going to compete with the rest of the world. We just can’t do it."
Some experts criticized Trump for his Wednesday comments, saying that a higher minimum wage would conflict with his stated goal of job creation.
"If Donald Trump is interested in creating good-paying jobs, the evidence shows that raising the minimum wage is the worst place to start," said Michael Saltsman, director of research at the Employment Policies Institute. "Even a $10.10 minimum wage will destroy a half-million jobs, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office."
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.