[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 24, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H3794]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1830
                          ON THE MINIMUM WAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. (Mr. Miller of Florida). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentlewoman from North Carolina [Mrs. Clayton] 
is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I also want to join briefly, although I 
will talk about another subject, want to join my colleagues in respect 
for the human dignity of the Armenian people and hopefully that the 
tragedy and the history of that event will teach us as public 
policymakers that we should make sure that that does not happen again.
  Mr. Speaker, over the past several days, the public has been 
privileged to hear the views of Members--from both sides of the aisle--
on the issue of raising the minimum wage.
  This is a good and healthy exercise.
  Some of what the public has heard has been fact. However, some has 
been fiction.
  This evening, I would like to address some of the major arguments 
that have been made and repeated during this debate and attempt to 
separate the fact from the fiction.
  Some have suggested that most minimum wage workers are teenagers, 
working part-time. That is fiction. Most minimum wage workers are 
adults--7 out of 10 of them--and most are women--6 out of 10 of them. 
That is fact. But even if most minimum wage workers are teenagers, 
should they not be paid a fair day's wage for a fair day's work?
  Many maintain that jobs will be lost and prices will rise with an 
increase in the minimum wage. That is fiction. But many more, including 
prominent economists, throughout the United States, have effectively 
disputed the job loss argument.
  None on the other side have successfully challenged the three 
economics Nobel Prize recipients and the more than 100 economic 
scholars from every corner of America--all who maintain the job loss 
argument is without foundation.
  And, on the issue of rising prices--first, prices have already risen, 
many times over the past 25 years, while the minimum wage has increased 
but once.
  To the minimum wage worker, price increases combined with no increase 
in wages has meant more obligations, less money and more misery.
  But, second, the claim that an increase in the minimum wage will mean 
higher prices for goods fails when examined against the experience in 
New Jersey.
  New Jersey, like eight other States, now has a minimum wage higher 
than the Federal minimum wage.
  It has been documented by empirical study, however, that when New 
Jersey raised its minimum wage, prices were not affected in any 
measurable way.
  Price increase claims are fiction.
  A few have stated that raising the minimum wage is a liberal Democrat 
idea--fortunately, that is fiction.
  Both Speaker Gingrich and Majority Leader Dole voted for the only 
minimum wage increase in this quarter of a century in 1989--that is 
fact.
  Moreover, twenty thoughtful Republicans in the House have joined the 
113 Democrats in the call for a minimum wage increase--that too is 
fact.
  Mr. Speaker, when the fact is weighed against the fiction, that fact 
rises and the fiction falls.
  An increase in the minimum wage is not a gift--it is not charity. It 
is just and due compensation for work performed.
  How is the value of work measured? That is a difficult question. I 
can, however, tell you what makes work seem valueless.
  Work seems without value when, after doing a job, promptly and 
thoroughly, an employee earns less than what is required for basic 
needs--something to eat, something to wear, a place to stay.
  If we are serious about moving citizens from welfare to work, we must 
make work pay. The public debate over the minimum wage has caused some 
to rethink their opposition to this vital matter. That is good.
  This debate will go on--it will not go away.
  Those who continue to watch as corporate profits soar, as the 
salaries of business managers spiral and as working America suffers, 
are missing an important moment in history--they are lost in fiction.
  An increase in the minimum wage is justified, it is necessitated by 
conditions and it is the right thing to do--that is fact.

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