OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

The Minimum Wage

Date: July 27, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Unemployed and Low-Income


THE MINIMUM WAGE -- (House of Representatives - July 27, 2006)

(Mr. McGOVERN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, the Federal minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 for 9 years. A minimum-wage worker working full time earns about $10,712 a year. A minimum-wage worker has to work an entire day in order to be able to afford to fill their tank with gas.

Mr. Speaker, Members of Congress have awarded themselves eight pay raises since the last time we increased the Federal minimum wage. That is about $35,000 in pay raises.

Mr. Speaker, 35 percent of workers who receive a minimum wage are their families' sole earners. Sixty-one percent are women and one-third of those women are raising children.

Here is the deal, I say to my Republican colleagues: have a heart. And if you are not going to allow us to have a clean vote up or down on the minimum wage, then bring to the floor a bill that repeals your pay raise. It is not right for Members of Congress to get a pay raise while they force millions of Americans to continue to live in poverty.

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