Rick Santorum presidential campaign, 2016/Labor and employment

	; ; Former presidential candidate ; Rick Santorum
	Political offices: ; Former U.S. Senator; (1995-2007); Former U.S. Representative; (1991-1995);
	Santorum on the issues:
	Taxes • Banking policy • Government regulations • International trade • Budgets • Agricultural subsidies • Federal assistance programs • Foreign affairs • Federalism • Natural resources • Healthcare • Immigration • Education • Abortion • Gay rights
	Republican candidate:
	Donald Trump
	Ballotpedia's presidential election coverage; 2028 • 2024 • 2020 • 2016

Rick Santorum announced his presidential run on May 27, 2015.^[1]

This page was current as of the 2016 election.

On November 28, 2015, Rick Santorum discussed raising the minimum wage while handing out food at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Anderson, S.C. He said, "Look, I know this is going to be heartburn for some people. I support small, gradual increases in minimum wages ever since I was in Congress. I don't support what Obama wants to do. I think that's ridiculous, absurd. Twelve dollars, $15 is not right."^[2]

As part of his Economic Freedom Agenda that he released on October 13, 2015, Santorum proposed raising the minimum wage by $1.50 over three years. The centerpiece of the agenda is his 20/20 Flat Tax Plan, which proposes a 20 percent flat tax on individual income and a 20 percent flat tax on business income. The plan also proposes repealing Obamacare, approving the Keystone XL Pipeline, creating work requirements for means-tested entitlement programs and reducing legal and illegal immigration.^[3] ^[4]

On July 28, 2015, Santorum said one way to increase employment opportunities for Americans without college degrees is to support manufacturing in the country. Criticizing President Obama’s energy policy for driving jobs to foreign countries, Santorum said, “There’s an appropriate amount of regulation that can lower overall emissions, create a healthier standard of living and encourage jobs to come back. And then there’s excessive amounts of regulation, which make it too costly to do business here and with zero environmental health benefits. If we bring manufacturing jobs back from China to America, we will lower emissions in the world.”^[5]

In a July 2015 interview with U.S. News & World Report, Santorum described his approach to adjusting the federal minimum wage. Santorum said, “I'd put it in an economic package with a variety of different things. I'd propose 50 cents an hour increase a year for three years, then take a look at it. That would bring it back into the range of what historically the percentage of the population has been covered by the minimum wage.”^[6]

While speaking at the Family Leadership Summit in July 2015, Santorum suggested legal immigration of unskilled workers should be reduced by 25 percent to increase wages in the United States.^[7]

During a 2012 Republican presidential debate, Santorum said, "I think the most important area that we have to focus in on when it comes to unions is public employee unions. That's the area of unionization that's growing the fastest and it's costing us the most money. We've seen these battles on the state level, where unions have -- have really bankrupted states from pension plans to here on the federal level, for example, 30 percent to 40 percent union -- union employees make above their private-sector equivalents. I do not believe that -- that state, federal or local workers, unions, should be involved in unions. And I would actually support a bill that says that we should not have public employee unions for the purposes of wages and benefits to be negotiated."^[8]

Santorum voted for HR 743 - Teamwork for Employees and Managers Act of 1995, which proposed amending "the National Labor Relations Act to allow employers to establish, assist, maintain, or participate in an organization or entity in which employees participate, to at least the same extent practicable as do representatives of management, to address matters of mutual interest (including, but not limited to, issues of quality, productivity, efficiency, and safety and health), if such organizations or entities do not have, claim, or seek authority to: (1) be the exclusive bargaining representative of the employees; or (2) negotiate, enter into, or amend collective bargaining agreements. Makes such amendment inapplicable in any case in which a labor organization is the representative of such employees (any unionized workplace)."^[9]^[10]

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