Democratic Party presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg met with minority and community leaders in Birmingham on Wednesday morning, saying he wants to reach out for their support.

“As a Democratic mayor in a Republican state, you can’t get much done unless you can reach across the aisle,” said Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Ind.

“One problem is so simple,” Buttigieg said. “People don’t get paid enough. It’s that simple.”

He’s in favor of raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. “We have to raise it,” he said.

Buttigieg focused on income inequality between the richest and poorest Americans.

“It was not an act of God; it was an act of Congress,” Buttigieg said of income inequality. “It was policy decisions, starting in the Reagan era.”

There were 24 people seated at the roundtable around Buttigieg, 15 of them black. He said at times the Democratic Party has taken the support of black voters for granted.

“That support is earned, that trust is earned,” Buttigieg said.

Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson sat to his right and pressed him on what he would do to help African-American women.

“We’ve got to work with you to see what you can do for black women,” Tyson said.

After the panel discussion, Tyson said she doesn’t expect Buttigieg to get much black support.

“I really can’t see it – not now,” Tyson said.

She didn’t say who she plans to support for president. “I’m open to all of them,” Tyson said. “Not one of them earned my vote.”

One person who said Buttigieg did earn her vote was Isabel Rubio. “You’ve got my vote,” she said as she shook hands with him after the panel discussion.

“He is looking at real issues and real solutions for real problems,” Rubio said.

Black attorney Richard A. Rice, owner of The Rice Firm, moderated the roundtable at the recommendation of Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, who met with Buttigieg privately after the roundtable.

“I’m still deciding," Rice said. "I think this is an important part of the process.”

Buttigieg is one of 17 candidates who qualified with the Alabama Democratic Party to be on the ballot in the March 3 presidential primary. Three have since dropped out -- Harris, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, and former Pennsylvania U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak.

The New York Times rates Buttigieg fourth at this point behind Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders.

The first voting takes place at the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3. Alabama is one of 15 states that will have its primary or convention on Super Tuesday.