[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 55 (Thursday, April 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H3827]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            WOMEN MAKE UP 59 PERCENT OF MINIMUM WAGE EARNERS

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks and include 
extraneous material.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, to make it perfectly clear, I 
am very glad we finally won the victory, with the help of the 
President, and the Democratic caucus, to restore cuts in education, to 
restore the 100,000 police. Today we will vote on a good appropriations 
bill. We are working for America.
  But what we really need to talk about is not the blame game regarding 
the minimum wage, we really need to talk about the pain in America. A 
few things we should consider in the argument to raise the minimum wage 
are that women are the ones that make up 59 percent of the minimum wage 
earners and nearly three-quarters of them are adults. Further, on 
average, women are still paid only 72 cents for every $1 men earn, and 
after inflation the value of the minimum wage is now 29 percent lower 
than it was in 1979.
  If we do the right thing and the fair thing and raise the minimum 
wage, just by 90 cents, from $4.25 to $5.15 an hour, that alone would 
lift an estimated 300,000 people out of poverty, including 100,000 
children.
  Let us not play jokes on the American people. Raise the minimum wage 
for America and for its working people.

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