[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 16 (Thursday, January 26, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H699]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HIGHER MINIMUM WAGE PRODUCES ADDITIONAL JOBS

  (Mr. PAYNE of New Jersey asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PAYNE of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, as a strong supporter of the 
proposal put forth by President Clinton to increase the minimum wage, I 
would like to share with my colleagues the findings of a survey in my 
home State of New Jersey. Despite dire predictions by some of gloom and 
doom, our New Jersey businesses report that they actually added jobs to 
their payrolls after the minimum wage was raised in our State.
  As Governor Christine Todd Whitman acknowledged in an interview 
following President Clinton's State of the union Address, New Jersey 
workers could not make ends meet on the national minimum wage of $4.25.
 Our State of New Jersey has a $5.05 minimum wage.

  Mr. Speaker, I am proud of the fact that our State has led the Nation 
in providing workers with the decent living wage they deserve.
  I support extending the increase in the minimum wage to every worker 
in our Nation. Let me point out that the value of the current Federal 
minimum wage, adjusted for inflation, has fallen by about 50 cents an 
hour since 1991.

                              {time}  0950

  It is about 27 percent lower than it was in 1979. Let us make sure 
that the economic recovery reaches all Americans, and let us support 
President Clinton's minimum wage increase.

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