[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 22 (Friday, February 3, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE MINIMUM WAGE

  (Mrs. CLAYTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, the President today proposed a modest 
increase in the minimum wage. We should support him. The President's 
proposal, combined with the earned income tax credit we passed last 
Congress, will go a long way in pushing millions of Americans out of 
poverty. Sixty percent or 6 out of every 10 of those who are minimum 
wage workers are women. Many of them have children. And, most minimum 
wage workers are poor.
  Increases in the minimum wage have not kept pace with increases in 
the cost of living. That is why a worker can work full time, 40 hours a 
week, and still be below the poverty level. If the Federal Reserve 
Board can increase interest rates seven times in less than 6 months, 
with no inflation in sight, surely we can increase the minimum wage for 
the first time since April 1991, a period during which the cost of 
housing, food, and clothing has greatly risen for the minimum wage 
worker. The best welfare reform is a job, at a livable wage. I support 
this constrained request to lift millions of workers out of poverty.


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