Providing for Consideration of H.R. 5672, Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Realted Agencies Appropriations Act, 2007
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 5672, SCIENCE, STATE, JUSTICE, COMMERCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007 -- (House of Representatives - June 27, 2006)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, for the last 5 years Republicans have stood by as the compensation of chief executive officers of major corporations has soared. At the same time, the salaries of middle-class Americans have stood absolutely still.
The minimum wage has not been raised since 1997, almost a decade. In that time, Congress has voted to increase its own pay nine times. If this Congress can get a raise, the American people ought to be able to get a raise. Had it been merely adjusted just for inflation from its level in 1968, those earning minimum wage would be making $9.05 instead of $5.15. Instead, its purchasing power remains at its lowest level in half a century.
Madam Speaker, millions of full-time minimum wage workers and their families live in poverty. Sixty percent of minimum wage workers are women. They are adults over 20 years old. On average, minimum wage workers contribute over half of their total family's income. Who can live, much less raise a family, on $10,700 a year?
It is not just the cost of milk and bread that has increased by 25 percent since it was last raised, Madam Speaker. Four-year public college tuition has increased 77 percent, health insurance 97 percent, gasoline 136 percent. Today, it takes a full day's pay for a minimum wage worker to pay for a single tank of gas.
Is there any clearer indication that the quality of life for those earning minimum wage in this country has decreased? Is there any more obvious sign that these families are headed in a downward spiral? The cost of everything is going up, while their wages are spiraling down.
For Democrats, this is a moral issue. We believe we should be raising the minimum wage, one of the best tools we have to keep families from falling off an economic cliff in this country. Even more than that, we believe something very elemental, that people who work full time in America should not be poor. We believe that their families should not be poor.
The fact is that despite the fact the economy grew 4.2 percent last year, its best statistical performance since 1999, very little of this growth is reaching many families. Indeed, over the past 5 years, productivity as measured by real GDP per hour worked has risen by about 14 percent, as the real wages of non-managerial workers have risen less than 2 percent. Who is getting the 12 percent?
So when people look at the statistics like that and wonder where is the rest of the money going, all they need to do is to look at their Congress emptying the Treasury by passing massive estate tax cuts for the likes of millionaires and billionaires.
Madam Speaker, by raising the minimum wage to $7.25, this Congress can say that hardworking families have a right to share in some of this economic growth, that this country is not about the survival of the fittest but about opportunity and opportunity for all.
Lastly, Madam Speaker, there is a direct corollary between small business growth and the minimum wage. I think the findings would surprise many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
Between 1997 and 2003, small business employment grew more in States with a higher minimum wage, 9.4 percent, than in the Federal minimum wage States where it only grew 6.6 percent. That tells us that raising the minimum wage is not only a matter of economic security for families but for businesses and for our economy as well.
So, Madam Speaker, I will oppose this rule, because I believe the American people need to know where their Representatives in this Congress stand when it comes to the minimum wage. They need to know, are you for economic security for families or are you against it? Do you stand with America's families or do you stand against them? That is the choice before this Congress today. I oppose the rule.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
http://thomas.loc.gov/