Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., is calling for an federal minimal wage of $18 to $20 an hour.
She offered the idea at an event in Detroit supporting One Fair Wage, an organization that lobbies for restaurant workers, according to a Fox affiliate.
She also criticized the federally mandated minimum wage for tipped employees, which is $2.13 per hour. The current federal minimum hourly wage is $7.25.
"Think about that for one minute: People cannot live on those kinds of wages," Tlaib said. "We can't allow people to be living off of tips and relying on tipped wages."
She also called out America Rising, a GOP political action committee, that was at the event.
"By the way, when we started it, it should have been $15. Now I think it should be $20. Make sure America Rising hears that," she said. "It should be $20 an hour – $18 to $20 an hour at this point."
America Rising tweeted footage of the comments Monday.
"They say all of this is going to raise the costs, but I can tell you milk has gone up," Tlaib said. "Eggs have gone up. Everything has gone up. The cost of food has gone up. The cost of a lot of a lot of things that we need has gone up already."
House Democrats approved legislation last week to raise the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade, to $15 an hour, but the bill has almost no chance in the Republican-controlled Senate.
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