Kevin E. Martin (GA-6) (R) is challenging Lucy McBath (GA-6) (D) in one of the safest Democratic seats in Georgia, a district Democrats carried by about 50 points in the 2024 presidential race. In a post on his campaign website, he breaks with his party on the minimum wage.
Martin, a controller by trade, wrote that the federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009 and the tipped minimum $2.13 since 1991, and that the result is a number that has “quietly become meaningless.” The expected Republican answer, he wrote, is that the minimum wage kills jobs and the market sorts it out, and he does not believe that as stated. Congress controls the number by statute, he argued, and has simply failed to act.
He points to Washington’s own contracts as evidence that the federal government has already decided $7.25 is too low. On certain federal contracts signed between 2015 and early 2022, the minimum rose to $13.65 an hour, with $9.55 for tipped workers, on May 11, 2026.
Martin wrote that he would not “pick a number in a blog post.” Instead he would set a new minimum based on cost-of-living data, index it so it adjusts automatically and does not freeze again, deal with the $2.13 tipped wage, and phase in any increase so workers just above the floor are not squeezed by compression.
McBath is an original cosponsor of the Raise the Wage Act of 2025, H.R. 2743, which as introduced would raise the federal minimum in steps from $9.50 to $17 an hour, with the $17 step beginning five years after the bill takes effect.
