[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 22, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H5386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REPEAL OF THE MINIMUM WAGE

  (Mr. KLINK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KLINK. Mr. Speaker, a few of the previous spokespersons on the 
other side talked about welfare reform. If we are going to reform 
welfare, we have to pay a livable wage for work.
  Today, after months of prodding, we are finally going to get an 
amendment to raise the minimum wage. Only the Republican leadership 
could, under the guise of raising the minimum wage, actually repeal the 
minimum wage for millions of American workers. You see, currently those 
companies that do less than half a million dollars gross per year do 
not have to pay minimum wage if they are involved in interstate 
commerce. The Republicans think that is a mistake. So today, they say 
they are going to fix that.
  What they are really going to do is to open the door for garment 
industry sweatshops, for industrial piecework. This is done in the home 
for sheltered workshops, for farm workers across this Nation who 
support their family, not to make a minimum wage. They are going to try 
to lower wages, see that there is no overtime pay, see that we are 
returned to long work hours, that we get rid of child labor abuses, 
protections. We have a situation where they are concerned about 
computer operators making a livable wage, waiters and waitresses, but 
they are not concerned about ECO's making 220 times what their workers 
make.

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