Workers protest for the the Los Angeles City Council to vote to raise the minimum wage on May 19, 2015. | AP Photo DNC draft platform includes $15 minimum wage

The Democratic National Committee unveiled a draft of its party platform Friday, calling for — among other progressive causes — a $15 minimum wage, free community college and abolition of the death penalty.

The draft was approved last weekend in St. Louis by 13 of the 15 members on the drafting committee, with one abstention and one who missed the vote.


Supporters of Bernie Sanders have expressed displeasure with the way the platform draft handles Medicare expansion, a carbon tax, a fracking ban and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Sanders policy director Warren Gunnels told POLITICO that the trade deal is "the most significant issue for us."

On the minimum wage, Sanders contended throughout his primary with Hillary Clinton that the federal minimum wage should be raised to $15, while the former secretary of state supported a $12 minimum federally and higher wages as decided on the local and state levels, both principles reflected in the draft.

"Democrats believe that the current minimum wage is a starvation wage and must be increased to a living wage. No one who works full time should have to raise a family in poverty. We believe that Americans should earn at least $15 an hour and have the right to form or join a union," the draft reads. "We applaud the approaches taken by states like New York and California. We should raise and index the minimum wage, give all Americans the ability to join a union regardless of where they work, and create new ways for workers to have power in the economy."

The Sanders campaign notched victories with language on abolishing the death penalty ("a cruel and unusual form of punishment" that "has no place in the United States of America"), expanding Social Security by increasing how much Americans making more than $250,000 contribute, and breaking up the country's largest financial institutions.

The draft document is headed for a full vote before the 187-member platform committee on July 8 and July 9 in Orlando, Florida.