[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 72 (Tuesday, May 21, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5310-H5311]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          IT IS NOT COMPASSIONATE TO INCREASE THE MINIMUM WAGE

  (Mr. CAMPBELL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks).
  Mr. CAMPBELL. Mr. Speaker, what is the compassionate and caring 
approach to people who need jobs? It is to

[[Page H5311]]

give them jobs. The problem with the minimum wage debate is that the 
arguments have ignored the fundamental fact that it is better to give 
somebody a job and get them started on their path in life by earning 
their own income, getting ready to go to work, and keeping a schedule, 
rather than not to have a job at all. I would like to be able to wave a 
wand and make sure that everybody's income rises, but I cannot, and 
nobody in government can. What we can do though is say ``yes'' to 
somebody who has got a shot at starting in life with a minimum-wage 
job. So be it, because one moves on from that to the next.
  It is not compassionate, therefore, to increase the minimum wage. 
Every time we have done it since 1974, unless the economy was just 
shooting through the roof, we lost jobs from what otherwise would have 
happened. I am afraid that will happen again.
  Do not put a tax on those people who offer jobs to people who need 
them; unemployed people who need a start in life. Do not support an 
increase in the minimum wage.

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