Bernie Sanders rallied fellow members of Congress, supporters, fast-food workers and labor advocates outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday for a bill he introduced that would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.

“The current federal minimum wage is a starvation wage. It’s got to be raised to a living wage,” the independent Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate said at the event.

Currently, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.

Sanders urged President Barack Obama to sign an executive order “so that every federal contract worker in this country is paid a living wage with good benefits and the ability to join a union,” according to a copy of his prepared remarks.

The remarks come as Sanders continues to make gains against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in the polls, though the former secretary of state remains comfortably in the lead. Clinton, who has been trying to counter Sanders’ progressive momentum, has called for raising the minimum wage but so far has declined to specifically endorse the $15 level.

Sanders on Wednesday was joined by Capitol complex food service workers, like Senate cafeteria worker Charles Gladden, who recounted his inability to pay rent because of low wages. Another woman joining Sanders onstage said that she also worked at a KFC to pay her bills.

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Politico