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Americans Need the Minimum Wage Raised
House of Representatives - July 12, 2005

Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues in rising in the defense of America's working poor. Instead of weakening workplace safety and not doing this today as the majority intends to do, we ought to be strengthening the American family by raising the minimum wage.

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It has been 8 years since Congress has increased the minimum wage. In those 8 years, Members of Congress have raised their own pay seven times by $28,500. In those same 8 years, minimum wage workers have not gotten a single raise. They continue to earn $10,700. We have given raises to Federal employees.

I ask unanimous consent to enter into the Record a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service  [PDF]  which shows the minimum wage will be at the lowest value as percentage of poverty in nearly half a century.

We have given tax cuts to the extremely wealthy. We have given tax breaks to oil and a host of other big industries. But we have ignored the needs and the plight of America's working poor. This study proves it, and it is time to change it.

The current minimum wage fails to provide enough income to enable minimum workers to afford adequate housing in any area of this country. It is inexcusable that today in America nearly one-fifth of children go to bed hungry at night while their parents work full time at minimum wage.

Whether one is a Democrat or a Republican, ending child poverty should be central to our domestic agenda. Nearly 3 1/2 million children have parents who would get an immediate raise if Congress increased the minimum wage.

Hard work is an American value. We teach our children the importance of work and encourage them to do well in school to achieve a job that rewards it. Despite this, 36 million working Americans live in poverty. Poverty and wage volatility have doubled for full-time, full-year workers since the 1970s. Since President Bush took office, the cost of housing has gone up 33 percent, college tuition has gone up 35 percent, and health insurance has gone up 59 percent. But the working poor have not seen one thin dime.

Leave No Child Behind is a cruel joke. America's future depends on strong families, and if Members believe in values of families, as some say they do, then they would vote this rule down. Every day we prolong raising the minimum wage, we ask families and children to do more with less. It is a bankrupt policy. Instead of rolling back workplace protections or fooling around the edges with that, we should be increasing the minimum wage.

I urge my colleagues to vote against this misguided rule and move on something more important, which is reinvesting in America's people.

Click here to read the Congressional Reaserch Service report "Historical Relationship Between the Minimum Wage and Poverty, 1959 to 2005."   [Adobe Reader®]