[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]




CONGRESSMEN EARNING 90 CENTS EVERY 45 SECONDS SHOULD SUPPORT INCREASING 
                  THE MINIMUM HOURLY WAGE BY 90 CENTS

  (Mr. GUTIERREZ asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, based on a 40-hour week, Members of this 
body make $64.40 an hour. When we leave the floor today, at 3 p.m., we 
will have earned $325.
  For the millions of Americans who earn minimum wage, $325 means 2 
weeks of work, 2 weeks sweeping the floors in our nursing homes; 2 
weeks crouched behind a sewing machine putting together our clothes, 2 
weeks changing the bedpans in our hospitals, 2 weeks, for what my 
colleagues and I will earn in the next 5 hours.
  Today, the President has proposed increasing the minimum wage by 90 
cents. Congressmen earn 90 cents every 45 seconds.
  Yet, how easy it will be for so many of my $65 an hour colleagues to 
dismiss this increase. ``Not needed,'' they will say. ``Bad economic 
policy.'' Let me tell my colleagues what I believe is bad economic 
policy:
  A minimum wage that leaves millions of Americans with children who 
are hungry, with college that cannot be paid for, with homes that 
cannot be bought and with dreams that will never be fulfilled.
  That is bad economic policy. Do the right thing. Support a livable 
minimum wage.


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