[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 8, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1378]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE

  (Mrs. MALONEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, there has been much rhetoric in this House 
about helping working families. Yet that rhetoric rings hollow when 
there is vocal opposition to raising the minimum wage.
  Where I come from, if you work full time making only $4.25 an hour, 
you are living in poverty. The current minimum wage offers little 
incentive to go off welfare and find a job.
  Some say that increasing the minimum wage will cost jobs, but study 
after study shows that is just not true. The minimum wage is at its 
lowest real level in 40 years. But some in the majority seem out of 
touch with just how little the minimum wage buys.
  If I were to propose that Members of Congress make only $4.25 an 
hour, people would call that proposal ridiculous. It is ridiculous. 
Members of Congress cannot live on $4.25 an hour, and neither can 
anyone else.
  Have a heart, raise the minimum wage.
  

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