Date: 2005-07-12
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. for his leadership on the Committee on Rules. and for being such a stalwart on behalf of worker protections. Mr. Speaker. I urge Members to defeat the previous question on the rule and allow this body to have an upordown vote on an increase in the minimum wage. By refusing to take up this bill over the past 9 years. the leadership of the House must take responsibility for what effectively is a repeal of the national minimum wage. American workers are long overduea raise. Real wages are declining for the first time in more than a decade. while prices of health care. gasoline. and other necessities are rising. making it even more urgent that we raise the minimum wage now. The minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 an hour since 1997. That is $5.15 an hour since 1997. and that is what this Congress has done to the American worker. Every American deserves a decent wage for the work they do. and most Americans agree that we should raise the minimum wage. They see it as a matter of fairness for their fellow workers. Unfortunately. the Republican Congress disagrees. and the Republican Congress disrespects workers and violates the will of the people when it refuses to increase the minimum wage. We ought to respect workers by guaranteeing them a fair wage. Work should be the path out of poverty. but millions of Americans work full time every day all year long and still live at poverty because they work at the Federal minimum wage. The failure of Congress has pushed millions of Americas most vulnerable workefs into poverty or near poverty. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2005 we present today as an alternative to these bills which roll back health and safety protections would in fact raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour in three steps. $5.85. 60 days after enactment of the bill. $6.55 one year later. and $7.25 one year after that. This would reverse the trend we now see where the number of Americans in poverty has increased by 4.3 million since President Bush took office. Nearly 36 million people live in poverty. including 1 million children. A recent report by the Center of Economic Policy Research shows that most minimum wage workers make a significant contribution to total family income. Half of them are between the ages of 25 and 54. Many workers find themselves trapped in minimum wage jobs. more than onethird of 25to50yearold workers in. minimum wage jobs are still earning a minimum wage after 3 years. Another report from the Childrens Defense Fund finds that the annual income of a single parent working full time at minimum wage covers only 40 percent of the estimated cost of raising two children. 71/2 million workers will directly benefit from minimum wage increases. More than 84 percent of those workers are 20 years old or older. 45 percent are married or have children. 60 percent work full time. 59 percent are white. 13 percent are* black. and 23 percent are Hispanic. with 57 percent women and 94 percent. of course. not protected by union representation. In the past 8 years. Members of Congress have had a COLA seven times. In those same 8 years. minimum wage workers have not gotten a single raise. They continue to earn $10.700 a year for working all year. all day long. Mr. Speaker. we should vote against the previous question so that we will have an opportunity to offer this upordown vote on the minimum wage. one that is sorely overdue and one that has been kept from the American public. despite its overwhelming support by the Republican leadership of this Congress.