Date: 1996-04-23
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank my colleague. the gentlewoman from Connecticut . for organizing this very special order on the minimum wage. Mr. Speaker. I join a number of our colleagues tonight in support of an increase in the minimum wage. Since the President proposed increasing the minimum wage to 5.15 over 2 years. a river of ink has flowed on both sides for this issue. According to the latest national poll. 87 percent of Americans favor an increase in the minimum wage. Howver. some of my colleague in the Republican Party continue to oppose a minimum wage increase. and they even oppose the minimum wage. In fact. I may have taken the gentlewomans poster. because this is such a great quote: "Emotional appeals about working families trying to get by on $4.25 an hour are hard to resist. Fortunately. such families dont really exist." That is why my colleague and a good friend of mine. the gentleman from Texas . I want him to know that I have these families in my district that are trying to get by on $4.25 an hour tonight. Maybe that is our problem. Maybe they have lost touch with what is actually happening out in America. with families trying to get by on $4.25 an hour. There ar families that are trying to do that. and it is a shame that maybe some of our colleagues in Washington do not understand that. Mr. Speaker. Republicans continue to argue that an increase may lead to higher unemployment and increase the number of welfare recipients. Mr. Speaker. the logic of this just does not match. Ask anybody on the street if increasing the minimum wage will increase welfare recipients. Mr. Speaker. the best welfare reform we can pass is a job that pays a decent wage to get people off welfare. Additionally. some of these same critics claim that the minimum wage is paid mainly to teenagers. and that an increase would cause layoffs of these teenagers. Americans know that the real value of the minimum wage has steadily declined for the past 15 years. and that minimum wage earners have not seen an increase since April 1. 1991. Fiftyseven years ago Congress H3706 co passed its first minimum wage of 25 cents an hour. and 57 years later. Americans are working to find that the real value of the minimum wage has steadily declined during these past 15 years. Minimum wage increases have been passed bipartisanly. In fact. our current Senate majority leader and our current Speaker voted to increase the minimum wage in the late 1980s. Minimum wage earners today have seen a fall of 45 cents in real value since the 1991 increase. The idea that an increase in the minimum wage could lead to an increased number of welfare recipients is simply not correct. In fact. the opposite is true. Again. the best welfare reform is a job that pays a livable wage. What critics fail to recognize is that the current minimum wage does not even provide a livable wage. Using todays minimum wage. workers putting in their.40 hours a week for52 weeks a year will earn just over $8.800. In my district. the current poverty line for a family of three is $12.000. You can work fulltime. one wageearner in your family. minimum wage. and still be eligible for food stamps. so this quote by. my colleague. and again. a good friend. I would say to the gentleman from Texas. I have families in my district who are trying to struggle on the minimum wage at $4.25 an hour. This working family is supported by a minimum wage earner well below the national poverty rate and is eligible in collecting food -stamps. However. this same family. if we had an increase to $5.15 an hour. figuring in the maximum earned income tax credit. would be $1.500 above the poverty level if we increase the minimum wage. This increase would give my constituents and other working Americans the ability to work their way off of the welfare rolls. It is argued that the minimum wage is a wage for teenagers. and therefore only at entry level. While this may have been true in the past. in fact. I remember working for minimum wage at $1.25 an hour. and I was glad when Congress increased that minimum wage. but the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the average minimum wage earner today is over 20. 20 or over. and more likely to be female and -working fulltime. The minimum wage is demonstratively no longer just for teenagers. If Congress does not increase the minimum wage our welfare rolls will grow. quite to the contrary of what may be said on the other side of the aisle. But with a minimum wage increase. these families will have the opportunity to be more selfsufficient. We should have a clear vote on a minimum wage increase. without cluttering up or including tax cut issues or other issues the Republican majority may want. One of the complaints I hear so often. and my colleague. the gentlewoman from Houston. TX . knows this. people ask us all the time. they say. "Why can you not just vote on a bill on its issue. instead of putting