[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 82 (Thursday, June 12, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H3792-H3793]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ON THE MINIMUM WAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Florida [Mrs. Meek] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, when welfare reform was passed, 
Congress gave very little guidance to States for determining the 
applicability of existing employment laws to welfare recipients. This 
meant that States, counties, employers could use any kind of guideline 
in applying the welfare reform laws.
  We all are in agreement, there should have been some reform of 
welfare. The time had come for that. But the time will never come when 
we take away some of the employment benefits from the Federal 
Government that every citizen of this country needs and desires and 
really should be given.
  Congress never said that the Fair Labor Standards Act, which includes 
the minimum wage provisions, should not be applied to welfare 
recipients. Neither did they say it should be applied. So those were 
questions that were left open.
  Each time this piece of legislation came to the floor, I questioned 
those things. I questioned because of the fact that the Federal 
Government, which has been sort of the person or the group of people 
who looked over these laws to be sure that everybody got fair 
treatment, equal treatment under the law, but with the Welfare Reform 
Act nothing was mentioned. Congress did not speak about the Fair Labor 
Standards Act in that particular piece of legislation.
  The President and some Members of Congress have tried to determine 
that welfare recipients in work programs should indeed earn the minimum 
wage, but some in this Congress want to overturn that decision. For 
some reason they think, Mr. Speaker, that it is

[[Page H3793]]

OK for people who were on welfare to make less than minimum wage.
  The Congress did a good thing. They want to see these people go from 
welfare to work. But they did not leave any guidelines to be sure that 
they when they went from welfare to work, they would be treated fairly, 
that they would be covered by the fair employment rules, that they 
would be covered by civil rights laws, this they would be covered by 
all kinds of Federal protection under the law. It was not there and it 
still is not there. But there is a great need.
  I do not agree with that, Mr. Speaker, because I stand for fairness. 
I stand for equality, and most Members of this Congress do, if they 
really understood what they are doing with this, cutting down, being 
sure that people who are going from welfare to work now may not even 
get the minimum wage.
  Welfare recipients deserve the dignity of equal treatment with their 
fellow workers. I repeat that. They deserve this dignity. The minimum 
wage does that. It gives them that dignity. Welfare recipients, Mr. 
Speaker, are entitled to the protection of wage and hour laws. They are 
not second class citizens. They deserve the same protection from wage 
and hour laws that each of us has today.
  Minimum wages are not inflated wages. We call them decent wages. This 
workfare is supposed to provide income and create incentives and 
opportunities for people receiving welfare. We do know that Congress 
has enabled them now to be able in 2 years to go out and find a job. 
But what we did not do is to protect them with the Federal laws that 
have been there for a very long time.
  Mr. Speaker, do not let it be corrupted into an oppressive system 
that forces workers to toil for cheap wages. It will bring us right 
back into the welfare syndrome that we just recently got out of because 
Congress passed these laws to make this happen throughout the country.

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