[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 15, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5135-H5136]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   DEBATE ON THE 1997 BUDGET PROPOSAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from North Carolina [Mrs. Clayton] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, this morning a hearing was held before the 
House Small Business Committee. The topic of the hearing was the 
current debate over increasing the minimum wage.

[[Page H5136]]

  During the hearing, I was struck by the testimony of Ms. Audrey 
Haynes, Executive Director of the Business and Professional Women/USA, 
an organization that represents some 70,000 working women with more 
than 2,000 local groups, one-third of whom are small business owners, 
at least one in every congressional district.
  Ms. Haynes pointed out that at $8,500 a year, the ``minimum wage 
worker'' is more appropriately referred to as the ``miracle worker''.
  The typical ``miracle worker'' is a single parent, with Children.
  At the ``miracle wage'' of $4.25 per hour, each week, she brings home 
$182 after taxes.
  She uses her ``miracle wage'' for child care at $50 a week; for 
minimal food at $65 a week; for essentials such as clothing, personal 
and health care products and doctor bills at $50 a week; for rent in 
basic housing at $85 a week; and for public transportation at $20 a 
week. She spends nothing on recreation or personal pleasure. And, at 
the end of the week, she still has a growing deficit of $88 each week.
  With a modest increase in the minimum wage of ninety cents, and with 
the earned income tax credit, which is in some doubt because it too is 
under attack, the ``miracle worker'' can cut her deficit in half.
  Mr. Speaker, I am at a loss as to how some of my colleagues can push 
for deficit reduction and a balanced budget, while refusing to pass a 
minimum wage increase that would be used by twelve million working 
Americans for that very same purpose.
  The Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy has assured us 
that the impact of a minimum wage increase would not be dramatic.
  Fewer than ten percent of the Nation's small businesses would be 
affected.
  That is because, contrary to popular belief, most minimum wage 
workers are employed by big business, not small business. Only 2.5 
million minimum wage workers are employed by businesses with fewer than 
ten employees.
  In addition, most small business owners already pay above the minimum 
wage. That is the only way to attract and keep good workers.
  Moreover, businesses with receipts of less than $500,000 are exempt 
from minimum wage laws, unless involved in interstate commerce.
  Mr. Speaker, a miracle is a mystery, a wonder, an enigma, a 
conundrum, a puzzle. How do these miracle workers survive at the wages 
they are paid? Perhaps the answer is that many do not.
  Perhaps that is why drug-driven violence, teen pregnancy, 
homelessness and hopelessness so permeate our communities.
  Ms. Haynes shared with us that twenty years ago her mother was a 
minimum wage worker, and today, in Columbia, KY, she still earns just 
above the minimum wage.
  The minimum wage for many is not a training wage. It is not a 
temporary wage. It is not a teenage wage; it is a miracle wage.
  I ask my colleagues to imagine feeding yourself and two children on 
$65 a week. Imagine clothing yourself, paying for personal and health 
care products and doctor bills on $50 a week.
  You do not go to the dentist on that budget.
  Perhaps if you can for one moment imagine the life of a miracle wage 
worker, the mystery may clear up and reality may set in.
   Pass the minimum wage increase.
  It does not take a miracle.

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