[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 57 (Tuesday, April 30, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H4131-H4132]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE IS THE ECONOMIC AND MORAL ISSUE OF THE DAY

  (Ms. PELOSI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks and include extraneous 
material.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call upon the leadership of 
the House to bring up legislation increasing the minimum wage, and in 
doing so I ask the question, how long does it take to earn $8,440?
  I call the attention of our colleagues to this cartoon, which states 
that it takes a full-time minimum-wage earner 1 year, while it takes 
the average CEO of a large U.S. corporation one-half a day. This 
cartoon is not funny and it is not fair.
  Yes, we salute the success of the entrepreneur and the 
businessperson. Yes, we recognize that business must make a profit. But 
in a country as great and as decent as ours, this cannot all be at the 
expense of exploiting our work force.
  For a minimum-wage earner a pay raise to $5.15 per hour would mean to 
have enough money for food, textbooks, simple things. We must raise the 
minimum wage to a decent living wage, to a wage that makes work pay.

[[Page H4132]]

It is the political, economic and moral--yes, I repeat, moral issue of 
our day.

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