[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 26 (Thursday, February 9, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1537]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H1537]]
NO MAXIMUM WAGE FOR CONGRESS WITHOUT A NEW MINIMUM WAGE FOR AMERICA ACT 
                                OF 1995

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Gutierrez] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, last week, our President issued a 
challenge to Members of Congress. He asked that this Congress take a 
stand for Americans who work and sweat and toil ever day, yet earn only 
$4.25 an hour.
  And how have we responded to that challenge?
  The majority of my colleagues--colleagues who make $64.40 an hour--
have responded with a simple answer--$4.25 is enough; $5.15--the level 
the President has asked the minimum wage be increased to--is too much; 
and $5.15 an hour is too much to pay the millions of Americans who 
carry lunch pails to work every day, who sweep the floors of our 
hospitals, who crouch behind assembly lines putting together our 
appliances.
  This decision means that more painful decisions will have to be made.
  My legislation says that if we dismiss this increase from $4.25 to 
$5.15, my colleagues and I will feel a little bit of the pain as well. 
Just a little bit of pain. It isn't the pain that day laborers feel at 
the end of long hours of manual labor. It isn't the pain that young 
mothers feel at the end of a long day on the assembly line. It isn't 
the pain garment workers feel after a long day of piecing together our 
clothing. it isn't the pain of not having the means to support your 
family or feed you kids. Almost five months of sweat and toil in jobs 
that most people don't even want.
  A Member of Congress has to work from January 1 until January 11 to 
make $3,500. Eleven days of work.
  I am not suggesting that many of my colleagues are not dedicated, 
hard-working and conscientious leaders. However, many of those same 
conscientious leaders simply dismiss the necessity of paying our people 
a livable wage.
  Well, that belief has real effects on real people. For many of my 
colleagues saying no to a livable minimum wage is simply a sound bite 
about economic policy and job creation. But for millions of Americans 
who work hard every day this decision is much more important than any 
sound bite.
  My legislation calls for Member salaries to decrease by 2.6 percent 
every year until the minimum wage increases to at least $5.15.
  Why 2.6 percent? That is the size of the cost-of-living increase 
Members of Congress were scheduled to receive in 1995.
  If Americans earning $4.25 an hour--less than $9,000 per year--can 
live where their buying power decreases every time the cost of living 
goes up--then certainly members of Congress can survive it.
  This 2.6 percent pay cut will save the U.S. Treasury almost $2 
million. This 2.6 percent decrease comes to about $3,500. The average 
American earning minimum wage has to work from January 1 until May 18 
to earn $3,500.
  How easy it is for those of us with salaries that place us in top .5 
percent of wage earners in this Nation, to say to millions of Americans 
who can only dream of someday making our salary--``You earn enough.''
  Well, I would like to take my colleagues at their word, and issue a 
challenge of my own.
  That is why, today, I introduced legislation tying the salaries of 
Members of Congress to the action--or lack of action--we take on 
minimum wage.
  If $4.25--$4.25 that in real earning power is less and less every 
day--is enough for millions of hard-working Americans, then certainly 
$133,000 is too much for a Member of Congress.
  My legislation is clear.
  Until we have the courage to join our President and increase the 
minimum wage to $5.15, then I think Members of Congress should also see 
their buying power deteriorate.
  Even today, 5 years after the last increase in minimum wage, $4.25 is 
still enough.
  Even though the cost of living has increased by more than 10 percent 
since the last time the minimum wage was increased, we still believe 
that $4.25 is enough.
  The price of homes has increased. The price of bread and milk and 
eggs has increased. The price of college tuition has increased. The 
price of rent has increased. The price of clothes has increased.
  But the minimum wage has not increased.
  And yet a great many of my $65-an-hour colleagues have responded to 
our President's challenge by saying that $4.25 is enough.
  It's just a little bit of pain--pain that will be easily forgotten. 
Not the pain of working 40 hours a week, and still not having enough 
money to support your family.
  I will be calling on my colleagues in the next few days to support my 
bill.
  I hope every person who is listening tonight who is making $4.25 will 
call on their Representative to support my bill, because this bill is 
really about the value of work. The value of the American workers' 
sweat and sacrifice and pain.
  I value the work of my colleagues. But I don't find it 15 times more 
valuable than that of the people who take care of our children, who 
tend to our sick, who clean our homes, and build our cities.
  So, if my colleagues continue to say no to a livable minimum wage, 
then I will work to say no to our maximum salaries.
  I encourage my colleagues to join me.
  I include for the Record a copy of my bill.

                                H.R. --

  Be in enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    
    
       This act may be cited as the ``No Maximum Wage for Congress 
     without a New Minimum Wage for America Act of 1995''.

     SEC. 2. REDUCTION OF PAY OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS PENDING 
                   INCREASE IN MINIMUM WAGE.

       Notwithstanding section 601(a) of the Legislative 
     Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 31) or any other 
     provision of law, the rate of pay of Members of Congress 
     shall be reduced by 2.6 percent on the date of the enactment 
     of this Act, and by 2.6 percent at the end of each one-year 
     period thereafter, until the effective date of the first 
     increase to at least $5.15 per hour in the minimum wage under 
     section 6(a) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. On that 
     effective date, the rate of pay of Members shall be restored 
     to the rate in effect on the day before the date of the 
     enactment of this Act.
     

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