[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 53 (Tuesday, April 23, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H3663-H3664]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        MORE ON THE MINIMUM WAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from California [Mr. Riggs] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to rise to address the minimum wage 
issue for just a moment as one of seven Republicans who a few weeks ago 
voted for a procedural motion on this floor that would have allowed the 
House to then consider actually a vote on increasing the minimum wage 
and as 1 of 20 Republicans who have now joined together to introduce 
our own version of legislation increasing the minimum wage. This is our 
competing version with the version that has been offered by our 
Democratic colleagues.
  What I wanted to first point out before this minimum wage bandwagon 
gets too far along in the process is that some of our Democratic 
friends, especially those in the other body, are not leveling with the 
American people. They are not telling the American people, for example, 
that during the past 2 years, when they controlled both Houses of the 
Congress and of course the Presidency, they did not entertain 
legislation to increase the minimum wage. That sort of begs the 
question: Why, if you think it was such a high priority, if you think 
it is such a high priority now, why did you not address it when you had 
the chance, when you controlled both Houses of the Congress and the 
Presidency?
  Second, Mr. Speaker, let me say that one reason, in fact the main 
reason that I supported increasing the minimum wage is because I 
believe we have to make work more attractive than welfare. I campaigned 
in 1994 on a promise of supporting an increase in the minimum wage 
provided it was coupled with meaningful welfare reform. I was 
concerned, first of all, that the minimum wage has lost a lot of its 
purchasing power to inflation and that we ought to increase the minimum 
wage to at least keep pace with inflation. Second, we ought to increase 
the minimum wage, as I said before, to make work more attractive than 
welfare.
  Over the past 15 months, the new Republican majority in the Congress 
has been attempting to help President Clinton, who, as candidate 
Clinton back in 1992, campaigned on a promise of ending welfare as we 
know it, made good on the promise. We have been dealing with meaningful 
welfare reform. We want to end the Federal entitlement for welfare. We 
want to make block grant programs which the States would administer. We 
want to impose a time limit of 2 years or less at the discretion of the 
States on receiving welfare benefits and a 5-year lifetime limit on 
receiving welfare benefits.
  Second and probably even more importantly, we want to require able-
bodied welfare recipients to work at least part time or enter a job 
training program in exchange for their benefits. That is emphasizing 
work over welfare. We recognize because so many welfare recipients are 
single mothers and that they struggle against heroic odds that we have 
to increase funding for child care and transportation to help those 
welfare recipients make that difficult transition from welfare to work. 
But again part of making that transition from welfare to work, at least 
in my view, is to increase the minimum wage.
  Mr. Speaker, that is why I am cosponsoring legislation which would 
increase the minimum wage, the Federal minimum wage to $5.25 per hour 
over the next year. If we are going to reform welfare by moving people 
from welfare to work, they need to be able to earn a more living wage. 
They ought to be in a position as a former welfare recipient to enter 
the work force in an entry level position, at least being able to meet 
their own needs, hopefully as well as the needs of dependents.

[[Page H3664]]

  Mr. Speaker, one glaring problem, one major flaw with our current 
welfare system is that in many cases it pays more for some people to 
stay on welfare. That is to say, welfare benefits in the aggregate pay 
more than what a person can make in a minimum wage job. If we want to 
reform welfare as the Republican majority in the Congress has been 
attempting to do with no help or support or cooperation from our 
Democratic colleagues, we have got to make work pay more than welfare. 
We have got to reverse that perverse incentive where welfare is more 
attractive than work. So reverse the equation, if you will, and that is 
why I support raising the minimum wage.
  It is a sad fact that a full-time minimum wage worker in America 
today would earn approximately $8,840 for a year's work, which is far 
less than many States pay in welfare cash benefits and well below the 
Nation's poverty level. We need to correct this inequity so that people 
who want to work are not forced to choose between work and welfare 
because welfare pays better.
  Again, Mr. Speaker, the point I wanted to emphasize is that the 
minimum wage increase in my view should be coupled with meaningful 
welfare reform like the welfare reforms that President Clinton promised 
back in 1992 and like the welfare reform legislation that President 
Clinton has twice vetoed over the last 15 months.

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