[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 22 (Friday, February 3, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1164]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 IN SUPPORT OF A MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE

  (Mr. MASCARA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MASCARA. Mr. Speaker, I stand here today to voice my strong 
support for the 90-cent increase in the minimum wage proposed by 
President Clinton.
  As my colleagues know, I represent southwestern Pennsylvania, an area 
of the country that lost 200,000 jobs in the 1980's when the winds of 
change blew through the steel mills and the coal mines.
  Many of my constituents are now left to subsist on $4.25 per hour, or 
$8,840 per year, hardly a living wage and no where near enough to raise 
a family.
  The facts are that adjusted for inflation, the value of the minimum 
wage has fallen by nearly 50 cents since 1991 and is now 27 percent 
lower in buying power than it was in 1979.
  Mr. Speaker, in 1989 President Bush proposed, and many of my 
Republican colleagues supported, a similar minimum wage increase.
  Now that we are about to undertake welfare reform, a minimum wage 
increase could be the first step in cutting welfare rolls and giving 
people a chance at a decent wage.
  If we are going to be fair to our workers and help the economy to 
continue to grow, we should pass this modest minimum wage increase now.
  American workers are crying out for us to help them.

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