[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 55 (Thursday, April 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H4045-H4046]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TIME TO VOTE ON A MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas, Mr. Gene Green, is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in just a few minutes we will 
be going to the budget agreement that I want to congratulate not just 
the majority Members, but also the whole Congress, because we finally 
have a budget agreement that, and I know I have heard this morning a 
lot of my colleagues on the Republican side talking about how it saves 
the tax dollars, and it does, and that is great. But it also restores a 
great many of the devastating education cuts that we have been talking 
about on this floor for months and months.
  What it does is it shows us we can have a balanced budget in 7 years, 
just like the President talked about, and still have investment in 
education and job training and those issues that we know are not just 
for today, that they are for next year and 5 years from now.
  But the reason I asked for 5 minutes this afternoon, Mr. Speaker, is 
to talk about it is time to have a clean vote on the minimum wage 
increase.
  Working Americans support an increase in the minimum wage. In fact, 
the latest poll I saw showed that 83 percent of Americans support an 
increase in the minimum wage. In fact, just today I see reported that 
we are not going to have a vote on this floor on a minimum wage 
increase. I think that hurts not only the Congress, but the majority, 
but I also think it hurts a lot of good, hard-working people in our 
country who are trying to struggle on $4.25 an hour.
  Americans know the real value of the minimum wage has declined in the 
past 15 years and the minimum wage earners have not seen an increase 
since April 1, 1991, 5 years ago, Mr. Speaker. During that time, with 
inflation 3 percent a year on the average, we see that percentage 
increasing.
  We have a bipartisan bill that has been introduced by some of my 
majority Republican colleagues, 20 Members I understand, and I am a 
cosponsor of that bill, to increase the minimum wage. Yet we see that 
we are not going to have a vote on it. I know some Members on the 
majority Republican side are disappointed just like those of us on the 
Democratic side.
  There is a proposal though, not the bipartisan bill, but there is a 
proposal we heard about, and again in speeches today from the majority, 
that the minimum wage would remain at $4.25, but we would continue to 
talk about a Federal Government subsidy for employees with families. So 
what we are seeing is an increase in this big Government in Washington. 
We have heard now for over a year, a year and 4 months, how we need to 
not have big Government in Washington. Yet we are going to, instead of 
businesses who can earn, who are depending on those people making $4.25 
an hour to produce a product, we are going to subsidize them from this 
big Government in Washington.
  It is like the world turned upside down, Mr. Speaker. I just do not 
understand it, just being a Member from Houston and understanding that 
the minimum wage, typically you earn that. We do not need any more 
subsidies for people who have families. We want a decent wage for a 
decent job being done, and to get these people off welfare.

                              {time}  1415

  The biggest problem I think we have, and the majority has to explain, 
is how a person making $4.25 an hour working 40 hours a week is still 
eligible in my district for welfare benefits. What we need to do is, if 
we increase the minimum wage to $5.15 an hour, a person working 40 
hours a week would then no longer be eligible for welfare. They would 
actually be able to work their way off of this subsidy that they may be 
receiving and the expanded subsidy I hear the majority party may be 
talking about.
  That is what is wrong. We need to make sure that they can earn that 
money to keep themselves, get themselves off welfare. And that is why 
it is amazing to me that instead of just increasing the minimum wage to 
where businesses will pay their employees a minimum wage reasonable 
enough to get them off of welfare, that we are coming up with ways that 
the government can subsidize it and say, well, we really need to do 
even more on an earned income tax credit, or do even more for providing 
for these families.
  These families want to work and earn a living. They do not want the 
government to provide it, and that is why it is so important that we 
provide for a livable wage for the minimum wage. America's families are 
working harder than ever and we know that. We see the polls. We see 
what is happening.
  The disparity between the highest paid people in our country and the 
lowest paid is getting higher and higher.

[[Page H4046]]

We need to respond to that as members of Congress, not just as 
Democrats but as a Congress, because we need to make sure that 
disparity is not there. The beauty of America has always been that we 
have a middle class and the hope for people to go into that middle 
class. And yet what we see is the disparity is getting bigger. The 
people who make the most are making more money and the people who make 
less are making even less.
  Mr. Speaker, I understand we are getting ready to go to the budget, 
but I would hope we would also see sometime in the near future a clean 
vote on the minimum wage issue.

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