[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 95 (Tuesday, June 25, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6828-S6829]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE MINIMUM WAGE BILL

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I join our two leaders in welcoming this 
agreement which will permit the Senate to vote on the issue about 
whether families that work hard 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, ought 
to have a livable wage. I think it is important to note that with this 
agreement the time of obstruction, delay, and stonewalling has been put 
aside.
  It did not have to be this way. Increases in the minimum wage have 
been bipartisan in times past, and they should be bipartisan today if 
we are going to reward work and respect work and make sure that 
families that are working will have enough of an income to provide for 
themselves, for their children, to put food on the table, and pay a 
mortgage.
  That has been a proud tradition for the last 58 years. Fifty-eight 
years ago today President Roosevelt signed the first minimum wage bill. 
It was 25 cents an hour. He predicted at that time there were going to 
be voices raised saying this was to be the end of democracy in America. 
So often with the increases that I have seen in the minimum wage since 
the early 1960's, there have been similar calls, that any increase was 
going to destroy the free enterprise system.
  Of course, that is not what this is about. It is about fairness. It 
is about decency. It is about respect for work. It is about making sure 
American families are going to be treated fairly.
  So I am grateful that we will have that issue before the Senate. 
Today is really a victory for working families, those working families 
that came here and appeared before various forums in the House of 
Representatives and the Senate of the United States. We were not 
permitted to have hearings to hear from these families, denied those 
hearings in the past year and a half. Nonetheless, we were able to have 
forums. Families told us about their hopes and dreams, told us how they 
work not one job but two jobs. Families pointed out they did not mind 
working one job, two jobs, three jobs but what they resented most was 
not having sufficient income so they could set aside a few hours to 
spend with their children and members of their family.
  That is what this is about. Women in the work force, 65 percent of 
those who receive the minimum wage are women in the work force. It is 
about children of working families in the work force.
  So, Mr. President, we will look forward to debating this issue when 
we come back after the Fourth of July break.
  Finally, as we are looking at this moment, we also have to consider 
what our friends on the other side are offering as an amendment to the 
minimum wage and their view about what the minimum wage should be. If 
perchance their amendment is accepted, then even the position of the 
House of Representatives, which said that the minimum wage would have 
gone into effect at the time of July 1, just a couple of weeks after 
the time of the passage, their proposal is going to delay that until 
the early part of next year, January of next year--another delay.

  Second, it is going to have a provision to provide 180-some days, so 
that any entrant into a new job for 180 days can still be paid at the 
old wage of $4.25 an hour. We have seen other gimmicks in the past on 
the minimum wage. We had a 90-day delay called the Youth Training 
Program, even though there never was a training program included, and 
then another 90 days included if that youth were under 18 years of age.
  Now we have a delay of 180 days for the entrant at the minimum wage, 
whether that be a teenager--the 30 percent of those who are making the 
minimum wage who are teenagers--or whether that be a single mother who 
has to provide for her family. If we pass this bill and get it enacted 
into law, it is going to be delayed until the early part of next year 
under the Republican amendment, and then it will be delayed another 180 
days under the Republican amendment. And then the final provision of 
the Republican amendment is to have a carveout for businesses of up to 
$500,000. That will carve out approximately 10 million Americans that 
will no longer be included in coverage for the minimum wage.
  So on the one hand, as we are going to have an agreement to at least 
vote on this issue and to address this issue of fundamental fairness, 
we also have to be aware that there will be a proposal on the floor of 
the Senate that will carve out 10 million of the 13 million Americans 
who would be affected by this minimum wage, will carve out those new 
entrants into the job market at the lower level of the ladder for 180 
days from getting any benefit of the increase in the minimum wage, 
should we support it, and then delay that program until the first of 
next year. That is a totally unacceptable proposal, and I hope it will 
be resisted here.
  But I am grateful to our leaders for working out this proposal. I am 
particularly thankful to those on our committee and here on this side 
of the aisle who have been constant. Every Member on our side of the 
aisle has voted in support of the increase in the minimum wage, and I 
commend the number of Republicans who have also joined with us and have 
reflected their support for the minimum wage in the past. We thank them 
for their constancy and indication they were going to take every step 
that was going to be necessary to get a vote on this issue.
  I hope that over the period of the next few weeks, the American 
people will look at what the alternative will be in this Chamber that 
effectively, on the one hand, will give an increase in the minimum wage 
and, on the other hand, withdraw it. That is an unacceptable way of 
proceeding. I hope that amendment will be defeated. It is important 
that the American people in these remaining days, when they see their 
Members of the Senate at the Fourth of July parades and at the picnics 
over this period of time, say, when

[[Page S6829]]

you go on back to the Senate of the United States on the 8th and 9th, 
OK, take care of those small business men and women, up to $13 billion 
in terms of additional kinds of help and support; OK, take care of 
those small businesses--and many of those provisions I will support--
but do not go in and carve out the millions and millions of Americans 
who otherwise would have participated in an increase in the minimum 
wage.

  I am grateful for this agreement, and I thank the Senator from South 
Dakota, the Democratic leader, who has been the leader on this issue as 
in so many other issues and with his leadership has really brought us 
to this place where at last we will have an opportunity to vote on this 
matter.
  Mr. President, I yield back the remainder of my time.

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