[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 58 (Wednesday, May 1, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H4310]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             AMERICANS DESERVE AN INCREASE IN MINIMUM WAGE

  (Mr. MILLER of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, hard working Americans deserve 
a raise. They deserve an increase in the minimum wage. Many of our 
colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle do not want to provide 
that increase in the minimum wage because they say that, in fact, 
people who earn the minimum wage earn much more than that because they 
get food stamps, they get AFDC payments, they get medical benefits.
  The question I have to ask is, Why should the taxpayers have to 
subsidize these people's jobs? Why should the marketplace not provide a 
livable wage so that these people can support their families, can 
support their children without the taxpayers subsidizing this through 
the welfare system?
  When we increase the minimum wage we save a substantial amount of 
money for those individuals because we no longer have to subsidize 
their jobs as much as we did before we increased the minimum wage. We 
ought to make sure that, in fact, we are not asking the taxpayers to 
subsidize jobs where employers simply choose not to pay the minimum 
wage.
  It is not that they cannot afford to, they just know that they do not 
have to pay it because the welfare system will subsidize that job. That 
ought not to be allowed. That ought not to be done anymore. We ought to 
in fact require those people to pay people for the hard work that they 
engage in.

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