[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 74 (Thursday, May 23, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5551-H5552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE MINIMUM WAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. Wise] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak in support of why I supported 
the increase of the minimum wage from $4.25 an hour to $5.15 an hour.
  One of the basic reasons I supported raising the minimum wage in this 
house today was, there are about 112,000 reasons: The 112,000 payroll 
positions in West Virginia that will see a wage increase because of 
this vote, roughly 17 percent of our work force.
  Mr. Speaker, this is important because it means it boosts their level 
of income. It makes them consumers. It makes them participants. The 
minimum wage has not been raised since 1991 when it finally reached 
$4.25 an hour. Moses wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. The 
minimum wage is at an all-time buying low, 40-year buying low, and it 
is time that it be raised. In fact, Mr. Speaker, it was just a few 
years ago that in the 1950's, 1960's and early 1970's that the minimum 
wage was designed to be about one-half of the average manufacturing 
wage. Today it is somewhere around one-third of that amount.
  So the minimum wage has steadily dropped, and I know, Mr. Speaker, we 
have heard the arguments about how much it is a job killer and less 
people will be hired. The studies do not seem to indicate that. But let 
me also suggest that we have heard that argument every time since the 
1930's when the minimum wage was first raised. Time after time that has 
been trotted out. Abut 8\1/2\ million jobs have been created in the 
past 3\1/2\ years. So the minimum wage is certainly not a factor in job 
retardation.
  Indeed, most of the jobs we are hoping to create are not minimum wage 
jobs. But for those people who have to work at 40 hours a week, trying 
to get by doing exactly what society asks them to do, I think it is not 
too much to ask for a minimum wage increase. Indeed, Mr. Speaker, I 
recall that when I was working my way through college, as a bunch of 
people in this country have done, I worked at minimum wage, and I 
remember that the only collective bargaining agent I ever had when I 
worked in that hospital carrying bed pans, and when I did other work 
along that line, the only collective bargaining agent I ever had was 
the Federal Government when it raised the minimum wage. That is the 
only way I was going to see a wage increase, and it was the only way 
that millions of others were.
  Mr. Speaker, there were amendments that would have greatly stripped 
the minimum wage coverage. One of the amendments, the Goodling 
amendment, while it would have raised the minimum wage, would have also 
removed 10 million people from possible coverage by the minimum wage. 
That certainly would not have been much of a victory. We could have 
celebrated the seven people left who could still qualify for an 
increased minimum wage.
  Mr. Speaker, just a few days ago, this House passed legislation to 
repeal the gas tax for 7 months, a 4.3-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax for 7 
months. Well, Mr. Speaker, I think it ironic that that action takes 
place. We were able to pass the gasoline tax suspension for 7 months. 
That, incidentally, gets you through the election. I guess that is to 
enable people to get gasoline to drive to the polls.
  The minimum wage increase is a real measure. It puts money into 
people's pockets. It gives them far more than the gasoline tax repeal 
for 7 months ever would have given them. It gives them an increase over 
a 2-year period to $5.15, or 90 cents an hour. It is what permits that 
person to recognize some fruits of their labor.
  We are asking a lot of people in welfare reform to get off of 
welfare, as they should, to go to work. What Kind of reward is there if 
you do not get a pay increase since 1991? I might add, I went to the 
supermarket the other night. Nobody stopped the food prices from 
increasing. Gasoline prices have been increasing. Everything else has 
been increasing since 1991. But wages of people who do a lot of the 
basic work in this country have not.
  So my hope is that this can be the first step in improving the 
working conditions of a lot of middle-income working people in our 
country. No, this is not the only step. There is a lot that needs to be 
done to grow jobs. There is a lot that must be done in education. There 
is a lot that must be done building the public works, the roads, the 
bridges, the water and the sewer systems, the industrial parks. But 
making sure that people are paid a fair and adequate wage, raising the 
minimum wage for the first time in 5 years, raising it from the lowest 
point in 40 years in terms of buying power that it has had, I think 
that is a significant accomplishment.

[[Page H5552]]

  So I am glad that on a bipartisan basis we were finally able to fight 
to bring this minimum wage bill to the floor, to get it on the floor, 
to defeat the crippling amendments that would have removed much of the 
coverage of the minimum wage, and to pass it on the House floor.
  It goes now to the Senate. My hope is that there it will move equally 
as quickly, and then to the President for his signature.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a good day that the minimum wage finally looks 
like it may be increased this year.

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