Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, across our country today, so many of our workers clock in 40 hours a week. They work very hard, and yet they are unable to provide for their families.

Just last fall, NBC News interviewed a woman named Latoya who worked in a fast food restaurant. She was protesting as part of a fast food workers strike. Latoya is raising four children alone on $7.25 an hour. That is less than $300 a week and is well below the poverty line for her and her family. For part of last year, she was living in a homeless shelter. She told the reporter: ``Nobody should work 40 hours a week and find themselves homeless.'' On top of rock-bottom wages, Latoya said she and her colleagues experienced unpaid wages, unpredictable scheduling, and having to make do with broken equipment on the job.

In today's economy, too many of our workers across the country face the same challenges as Latoya. They are underpaid, they are overworked, and they are treated unfairly on the job. In short, they lack fundamental economic security.

Several places around the country and in my home State of Washington are working to address this at the local level. This Senator believes we need to bring the Washington State way here to Washington, DC. In Congress, I believe we need to act to give workers some much needed relief. We need to grow our economy from the middle out, not the top down, and we should make sure our country works for all Americans, not just the wealthiest few.

There is no reason we can't get to work today on legislation to do just that. That is why I have joined with my colleagues over the past few months in introducing several bills that will help restore some much needed economic security and stability to millions of workers. That is why I am hoping we can move some of these bills forward before we all go back home to our States.

For too long we have heard from some Republicans the theory--a deeply flawed theory--that if we would only grant more tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and if we would just keep rolling back regulations on the biggest corporations, those benefits would eventually trickle down and reach working families in our country. Not only does that theory not work, as we have seen over the past few decades, that trickle-down system has done real damage to our Nation's middle class and our working families. While worker productivity has actually reached new heights, workers have lost basic protections they once had.

While trickle-down economics allows corporations to post big profits, too many of our workers are paying the price. Let me give some examples. Today the Federal minimum wage can leave a family in poverty even after working full time and even without taking a single day off. Not only that, today some businesses are using unfair scheduling practices to keep workers guessing about when they are going to be called in to work, with no guarantee of how much money they will earn in a given week. Those types of scheduling abuses take a real toll on workers' lives and prevent them from getting ahead. Attending college classes is not an option when someone's work schedule is always in flux. Taking on a second job to earn more money is nearly impossible when you can't plan around your first job. And that is not all. Today, 43 million workers in this country don't have paid sick leave. When they get sick, they have to choose between toughing it out at work and passing that illness on to others or staying at home and potentially losing their job. When their child is sick, they have to choose between losing money on their paycheck or missing out on caring for their son or daughter. If that is not enough, in our country women are paid just 78 cents for every dollar a man makes. That is not just unfair to women, by the way; it is bad for families and it hurts our economy.

Many businesses are doing the right thing and are supporting their workers, but other corporations that don't, put those businesses that are doing the right thing at a competitive disadvantage by running a race to the bottom and pulling their workers down with them.

This worker insecurity isn't just devastating for the millions of workers and their families who are impacted by it, it is also hurting our economy. Truly robust and strong economic growth comes from the middle out, not the top down. When our workers lack security, when they are not treated fairly, they can't invest in themselves and their children or spend money in their communities or move their families into a middle-class life.

I believe we have to address this challenge on multiple fronts. We can start by making sure our workers are treated fairly so they can earn their way toward rising wages and increased economic security.

There are important things we can do here in Congress to expand economic security and stability for millions of our working families today. For starters, we should pass the Paycheck Fairness Act that the senior Senator from Maryland has championed for so many years to finally close the pay gap between men and women. The Paycheck Fairness Act would tackle pay discrimination head-on. This Senator hopes we can all agree that in the 21st century, workers should be paid fairly for the work they do, regardless of their gender.

We should also raise the minimum wage to make sure hard work does pay off. My Raise the Wage Act increases the minimum wage to $12 by 2020 and is enough to lift a family of three out of poverty. It will put more money in workers' pockets so they can spend it in their local communities. It will help to build a strong floor--a Federal minimum--that workers and cities can build off of and go even higher where it makes sense, like in Seattle in my home State in Washington. It is a level that Republicans should be able to agree with and start moving toward right now.

I have also worked on a bill, along with Senators Warren and Murphy, to crack down on the scheduling abuses I just talked about, so businesses would no longer keep their workers guessing on when they would be called in or how many hours they might get in a given week.

In February I introduced the Healthy Families Act to allow workers to earn up to 7 paid sick days. I want to move forward on that legislation to give our workers some much needed economic security because no one should have to sacrifice a day of pay or their job altogether just to take care of themselves or their sick child.

We as a nation should not turn our backs on empowering our workers through collective bargaining, especially since strong unions ensure workers have a strong voice at the table. It is the very thing that helped so many workers climb into the middle class in this country.

Enacting these critical policies won't solve every problem facing our workers and their families today. It is not the only way that I and Senate Democrats will be fighting to protect workers and making sure the economy is growing from the middle out, not the top down. But these policies would be very strong steps in the right direction to bring back that American dream of economic security and a stable middle-class life for millions of workers who have seen it slip away.

When workers succeed, businesses succeed and thus the economy succeeds. We know this works. I have seen it in my home State of Washington where State and local governments have taken the lead on proposals such as raising the minimum wage and paid sick days. I think it is time to bring some of that Washington State way right here to Washington, DC.

I recently heard from a small business owner by the name of Laura. She owns a small auto repair shop in Renton, WA. She shared something that I hear all the time from business owners: Doing the right thing by workers starts a virtuous cycle. Laura said, ``When workers have more money, businesses have more customers. With more customers, businesses can hire more workers, which in turn generates more customers.''

Working families in our country have been waiting long enough for some relief from the trickle-down system that hurts the middle class. That is why I am going to be asking for unanimous consent to work on the policies that would restore economic security and stability to more workers.

Let's finally restore some stability and security for workers across our country. Let's make sure hard work pays off. Let's help more families make ends meet, expand economic opportunity, and grow our economy from the middle out.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I yield the floor.

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