Reflecting on Priorities Facing America

Floor Speech

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Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with my colleague and coanchor for the Congressional Black Caucus, Delegate Stacey Plaskett, on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus for this Special Order hour where we can reflect on the priorities facing the American public.

This week, this body will be voting on the topic of raising the minimum wage and giving Americans a well-deserved raise and the impact that that would have not only on the workforce at large but, specifically, for Black workers and families across the United States.

Why is this so important as we touch on the issues of the day? According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is no place in America where a full-time worker making the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour can afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.

Additionally, many working people, particularly working women and Black workers, are still facing persistent and even, in some cases, worsening wage gaps since 2000. The wage gap between Black and White workers has grown significantly.

So for this hour, Mr. Speaker, we will discuss the issues affecting American workers and why it is imperative that this House take up the WAGE Act that we will be considering later this week.

I am honored to have with us here this evening several members of the Congressional Black Caucus who will share their thoughts, concerns, and priorities for this legislation.

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Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Michigan for bringing forward her commitment and leadership on these important issues and sharing her support for the Raise the Wage Act, which this body will be considering later this week.

Just before we started this Special Order hour, one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle came up and talked about the negative impact of raising the Federal minimum wage. It is so interesting that CEOs for the 350 largest U.S. companies on average were paid $18.9 million in 2017, which is a 17 percent increase from the previous year. Meanwhile, wages for the average U.S. worker grew by 0.2 percent during that time.

How is it okay that CEO pay can go up 17 percent, and the average CEO for the 350 largest U.S. companies can, on average, be paid $19 million, and we can't afford to give America a raise?

On average, controlling for age, gender, and education, Black workers are paid 16.2 percent less than White workers. According to the Census Bureau--which is why it is so important for people to participate in the Census, so that we have this vital data--in 2016, the average household income for a White family was $80,720. For a Black family, that number sat at $38,555, less than half of what an average White family took home.

That affects every aspect of that family's life, from their ability to afford housing to healthcare to being able to put food on the table and put gas in the car so that they can make it to their work.

We believe that one job should be enough and that people should be able to have a livable wage to take care of themselves and their families.

I urge my colleagues throughout this body, particularly those on the other side, that if they are going to come to this floor this week and oppose giving Americans a raise, then they have to be able to explain why they support CEO pay increasing more than 17 percent in one given year while U.S. worker wages grew at less than 0.2 percent during that same time.

Workers deserve a wage increase. Their wages have been stagnant for far too long. That is why we are encouraging this body to bring up the Raise the Wage Act.

He is a gentleman with whom I have the honor of serving on the Ways and Means Committee. The Representative likes to talk about the history of his great city, and I know he is here to also talk about why the constituents of that great city deserve a wage increase.

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Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania and again thank him for his dedication and commitment on behalf of his constituents in Philadelphia, in bringing their voice to this process. General Leave
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Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, we are led by a dynamic chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Representative from California, Congresswoman Karen Bass, and I had the honor of attending one of her congressional field hearings this week. The CBC is dedicated on a number of policy platforms, and this is among them.

Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett), my colleague, whom I am coanchored with this evening.

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Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from the U.S. Virgin Islands, and I appreciate, again, her work as a coanchor tonight and bringing not only the increasing issues of wages for American workers, but tying and connecting the point around housing and the ability to really afford to live.

As we have heard time and time again from our constituents, people are falling behind, and it is because they have seen stagnant wages for far too long. While the other side is giving corporate tax cuts to the wealthiest, 83 percent of the benefit of their $1.7 trillion tax going to benefit only the top 1 percent, it has done nothing to help the working poor and those who actually help build a strong economy.

For the past 40 years, Congress has failed to increase the minimum wage to keep up with inflation, making it the longest period of time in history without an increase. Today's minimum wage workers have less buying power than minimum wage workers had in the 1960s. In the past 40 years, the Federal minimum wage, stuck at $7.25 since 2009, has lost 30 percent of its value.

What does this mean? It means the minimum wage is worth less today than it was in 1960. The same wage can't buy you as much due to inflation and wages not being corrected to match for inflation.

The person who has been leading the charge as the chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, the person who has brought so much perspective on so many issues, from criminal justice reform to voting rights and now is making sure that this body considers the Raise the Wage Act this week, is none other than Congressman Bobby Scott.

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Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman from the Education and Labor Committee. It makes a big difference when he has the gavel and the priorities that he has set as the chairman of that committee and the fact that, as we have done from the beginning of this Congress, the For the People Agenda has been focused on making a difference in the lives of the American people that we represent.

The gentleman just pointed out that two-thirds of the minimum wage workers in this country are women and that two-fifths--in fact, 38 percent of African Americans and one-third, 33 percent of Latinos-- would get a raise when we pass the legislation and the Federal minimum wage is increased to $15 an hour.

It would also boost the economy. A 10 percent increase in the minimum wage would increase sales by around $2 billion each year.

Now, I want to just take on a couple of the myths that have been out there with this administration and my Republican colleagues who have opposed the efforts of the House Democrats to bring forward this wage increase.

One of the myths out there is around the Black unemployment rate in this country. We hear often the President say that, among certain racial groups, particularly African Americans, the unemployment rate is at an all-time low.

And while it is, in fact, true that the unemployment rate is down and it has been down and has been steadily falling since 2011, well before Trump was sworn into office, that rate of decline has not gained momentum since.

In fact, even at an annual rate of 6.6 percent, the Black unemployment rate is still more than double the White unemployment rate, which is at 3.2 percent.

What this says is that the Black unemployment rate has been about double the White unemployment rate for more than four decades, making this relationship more historically significant than any single unemployment rate.

So, Mr. President, if you want to take credit for the low unemployment rate among African Americans, then you need to be held accountable for keeping the rate down and to propose a plan to close the persistent 2-to-1 racial disparity that has existed for more than 40 years.

Another issue that I want to take on is the fact of the amount of jobs that have been created since this administration has taken over. We know that many of the jobs that have been created are, in fact, low- wage, low-paying jobs. Many of the jobs are in the gig economy, and those individuals are not getting paid the same amount as traditional workers.

We know that many employers are paying workers for less than full- time work, which means that they still cannot provide for their families, that they are not being afforded healthcare, and, in fact, the government is subsidizing many of these corporations--the same corporations that give their CEOs 17 percent pay increases but then want to tell the workers: ``You can't have a raise.''

And these are the myths that the other side wants to, again, put out there to distract from the House Democrats and our agenda in giving Americans a raise.

Now, I want to just touch on one specific point from my home State in Nevada. Recently, our Governor, Governor Steve Sisolak, the first Democratic Governor to be elected in Nevada in 20 years, signed into law a $12 minimum wage increase, following 10 years of wage stagnation for working-class families in Nevada.

In fact, the last time we raised the minimum wage in Nevada was when I was serving in the State Senate. So, elections do have consequences.

But, with the help of our legislative leaders, Speaker Jason Frierson and Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, the Nevada legislature increased the Nevada minimum wage to $12. But that raise won't go into effect until 2020, and, for now, one in five workers in Nevada are making under $12 an hour, less than $24,000 a year--$24,000 a year.

What is a family supposed to do? How are they supposed to make ends meet on $24,000 per year?

Mr. Speaker, $12 for Nevadans is a step in the right direction, but we need to be working to provide equitable wages for all Nevadans.

The Raise the Wage Act would work toward a $15 minimum wage by 2024, as the chairman from the Education and Labor Committee indicated.

A pay increase will benefit 127,000 workers in my district alone. Specifically, it will raise wages for 18,800 Black workers, more than any other congressional district in Nevada.

So, the Raise the Wage Act is an important measure. It would give up to 27 million workers a raise, lifting 1.3 million Americans out of poverty and boosting economic growth by putting money into the pockets of workers, who will spend that money in growing the economy, not like the corporate tax cut that was given to big corporations where they simply just bought up more shares of their own stock.

They didn't do anything to hire more workers or to help stimulate the economy. They just made themselves more rich.

All Americans who work hard deserve to be able to afford a middle- class life and opportunities to get ahead.

I believe that one job should be enough and that it is time that we set our children up for success by making sure that working families have the wages that they need to provide for themselves and their family.

Plaskett).

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Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman was talking about the impact beyond just family incomes, which is important. And we want to give all Americans a raise.

While the priorities on the other side were about giving corporations and billionaires more wealth creation, we are laser-focused on putting more money in the pockets of hardworking Americans.

But the question I have is around the recent research with States that, following an increase in wages, we actually can see the rates of suicides fall, consumer spending rise, and a more productive workforce.

There is no place in America where a full-time worker making $7.25 an hour can support their entire family, let alone afford basic needs.

There is no place in America where a full-time worker making the current $7.25 an hour can support their entire family.

And, as I said, the productivity piece--which, again, my colleagues are always talking about the need to make America more competitive and more productive. Well, in one study, researchers tracked 10,000 workers at about 200 department stores and found that a dollar increase in the minimum wage led a typical employee to sell about 5.4 percent more per hour.

So, if we give workers the wage that they are deserving of, they will put that extra money to work for the American economy, unlike giving more tax breaks to the wealthy. For a worker earning the minimum wage, the increase could be almost 20 percent.

Now, again, I have underscored repeatedly the impacts to the economy, and we will take on that debate later this week when this bill comes to the floor.

But the point I just wanted to ask my colleague about is that human impact. You know, this is more than just numbers. This is the two- thirds of American workers who are women who are increasingly the head of their household.

So can the gentlewoman relate to that impact and the constituents that she serves and the stories that she has heard about the anxiety that they go through every day and not being able to make ends meet?

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Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, I know the affected workers that I hear from in my district, they want this raise. This raise would provide on the order of about $3,000 a year. That is enough money to make a tremendous difference in the life of a preschool teacher, a bank teller. We have got fast-food workers who, today, struggle to get by on around $20,000 a year.

A $15 minimum wage by 2024 would generate $144 billion in higher wages for workers and would also benefit the communities in which they live.

So while corporate profits, as a share of our national income, are at an all-time high, wages are at a 65-year low. So if we are not going to give workers a raise now, when are we going to give it to them? They have been waiting for far too long.

I want to commend the leadership of our Speaker, of course; the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, the chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, it is because of their leadership, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Hakeem Jeffries, and others, that this is part of the For the People Agenda.

This is why we are laser-focused. And we are laser-focused on a lot of priorities. We want to give workers a raise. We also want to address housing affordability. We want to address the issues around healthcare costs and the out-of-pocket expenses that so many Americans are dealing with.

We know that more entrepreneurs want to start a new business, and we want to give them the tools and the resources necessary for them to do so.

We want to repeal some of the unnecessary tax burdens on Americans, like the Cadillac tax on healthcare, which I know this body is also going to be considering.

So these are among the priorities of the House Democratic Caucus in the For the People Agenda that we are raising up and reminding people that we need to deal with this congressional session.

So, just to highlight, again, the Raise the Wage Act of 2019 would gradually raise the Federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024; and here is how it would work.

As the chairman has indicated, it would raise the Federal minimum wage to $8.55 this year and increase it over the next 5 years until it reaches $15 an hour in 2024. After 2024, it would adjust the minimum wage each year to keep pace with growth in the typical worker's wages, something that we have not done for some time.

It would phase out the outdated sub-minimum wage for tip workers, which has been frozen at a meager $2.13 since 1991. And it would sunset the sub-minimum wages for workers with disabilities employed in sheltered workshops, and for workers under age 20.

This is a commonsense measure, something that American workers and our constituents have been demanding. In fact, 1 in 9 U.S. workers are paid wages that leave them in poverty today, even when working full- time and year round. And so that is why this bill is so important, the Raise the Wage Act.

I am looking forward to working with my colleagues to bring this measure to the floor later this week, and to debate with my colleagues on the other side where they stand and whether they will join with the House Democrats to pass this legislation over to the Senate so that they can also take action.

I also want to just touch on a point that my colleague was talking about, dealing with home ownership in the Black community. Today, The Wall Street Journal released a report that Black home ownership is at an all-time low. It has fallen 8.6 percentage points since its peak in 2004, hitting an all-time low in the first quarter of this year.

Homes and neighborhoods with a concentration of Black homeowners, on average, are worth less than 6 percent than they were in 2006. And in the second quarter of 2018, Black home ownership stood at 41.6 percent, down more than a full half percent from the first quarter rate.

Nationally, the Black home ownership rate is only 41.6 percent, virtually unchanged from 50 years ago when the Federal Fair Housing Act banned racial discrimination in housing. The national White home ownership rate, by comparison, is 71 percent.

So these are really dire statistics that I wanted to bring to the attention of this body. I know that the chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters, and her Subcommittee on Housing are working to tackle this problem as well.

But it is time that we address the 30 percent point gap in home ownership between Black and White Americans, which is at its highest point in the new millennium.

Why is this so important?

It is, because, for Black Americans, so much of our wealth is accumulated in the equity of home ownership. And again, this is central to the issue of giving workers a raise because they need that raise in order to afford the higher cost of housing, the higher cost of healthcare, the higher cost of food, the higher cost of gas. Everything is going up but their pay check, and that is what I hear from my constituents, from those who are earning a minimum wage.

Under the Raise the Wage Act, it would increase by almost 20 percent. So I am looking forward to, again, debating my colleagues on this important issue when we come to the floor later this week.

As we have talked about here tonight, the Congressional Black Caucus is laser-focused on making sure that Americans get a raise. We know that giving Americans a raise would give up to 27 million workers the benefit of increased take-home pay. It would lift 1.3 Americans out of poverty. And it would boost our economic growth by putting money where it belongs, in the pockets of workers who will spend that money in the economy.

Unlike what was done with the corporate tax cuts that were given, where 83 percent of the benefit of the $1.7 trillion tax cut went to benefit just the top 1 percent, we are focused on helping everyday Americans get the money they need in their pocket.

Now, I asked a question at the beginning of tonight's Special Order hour dealing with the 350 CEOs from the largest U.S. companies who earned an average pay, in 2017, of $1.89 million. That is a lot of money.

I have no beef with CEOs getting a fair pay, but that pay increase amounted to a 17 percent increase from the previous year. And just before we started the Special Order hour, one of my colleagues came to the floor and said that increasing the Federal minimum wage would be devastating to our economy.

Well, what does he say about the CEOs who are getting record pay and record bonuses, and the fact that all of the corporate tax cuts that they provided went to just buying more stocks in those companies?

Meanwhile, the wages for the average U.S. worker grew at .2 percent during that same time. This is a fundamental question that I honestly would like my colleagues to be able to answer, and I will seek them out during this week, because I want them to join with us to pass this bill.

This really should not be a partisan issue. Giving Americans a raise is something that we all should agree on benefits all of our workers. My colleagues on the other side have low-wage, low-paid workers in their district just like I have low-wage, low-paid workers in my district.

The Raise the Wage Act of 2019, which proposes raising the Federal minimum wage in six steps to $15 an hour by 2024, will result in a pay increase for 38.1 percent of all Black workers and 23.2 percent of all White workers.

This disproportional effect on Black workers comes not just because they are more often employed in jobs that currently pay less, as we have discussed tonight, than the proposed minimum wage, but also because they are less likely to work in States or localities that have passed a State minimum wage that is higher than the Federal minimum wage.

So that is why it is time for Federal policy to set the standard so, regardless, of where you live, you can earn a decent, livable wage to provide for yourself and your family.

We believe that one job should be enough. It should be enough to provide for you and your family. It should be enough to put a roof over your head. It should be enough to make sure that you can pay for the copays and the prescription drugs that you need in order to stay well.

It should be enough so that we can address food insecurity in this country; and it should be enough so that your children can be set up for success in their future.

I encourage each and every one of my colleagues this week to study this bill; to think about the constituents back home in their district; and to ask themselves, what were we sent here to do; to help the well- off and the well-connected, or to give voice to those who deserve to be heard in this body?

I am honored to be a Representative from Nevada's Fourth Congressional District; and I know my district is not exactly the same as every other district, but I have rural parts and I have urban parts of my district, covering 52,000 square miles.

The commonality in my district is that there are struggling people throughout every corner of my district. And so when I vote this week in favor of giving workers a raise, I will be voting to give a raise to every single worker throughout Nevada's Fourth, and throughout this great country.

I thank my colleague, the coanchor, Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, Mr. Scott, and each and every one of my colleagues who have spoken here tonight.

I thank the Speaker for giving us this hour to bring about the issues that are important.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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