[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1130
    URGING CONGRESS TO PASS THE MODEST INCREASE IN THE MINIMUM WAGE

  (Mr. ENGEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, our Republican friends support a tax cut for 
wealthy Americans earning more than $200,000 a year, but they will not 
support a raise in the minimum wage for people who want to work and not 
collect welfare.
  If we truly want to move people off public assistance, we must make 
work more attractive than welfare. We ought not be deceived by those 
who say the minimum wage is only being paid to teenagers from well-off 
families. Two-thirds of minimum wage workers are adults over the age of 
21, many of whom bring home at least half their family's income.
  Let us look at the choices faced by a single mother living at the 
poverty level. If she goes on welfare, she can get comprehensive health 
care and a monthly check from the government. If she goes to work at a 
minimum wage job, she earns only $8,500 a year, and her family loses 
her health coverage. She must find a way to care for her children while 
she is at work. That is not much of a choice. Mark my words, Mr. 
Speaker, tossing people off welfare will not make these dilemmas 
magically disappear.
  The minimum wage is an important piece of the effort to raise the 
living standards for all Americans. We started on the right path last 
year when we voted to expand the earned income tax credit. Let us raise 
the minimum wage.

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