In response to questions from reporters, Sanders said University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's move to raise wages to $15 an hour — an hourly rate he has backed — was "a step in the right direction." Asked whether trade could be blamed for the loss of Pittsburgh's manufacturing base — much of which was hollowed out in the 1980s, before trade deals like NAFTA were passed — he allowed that trade wasn't the only problem facing American workers. But he said it was significant, and had facilitated a broad transfer of wealth from the middle to the upper classes.