[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 34 (Tuesday, March 24, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E445]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E445]]



                              MINIMUM WAGE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NEWT GINGRICH

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 24, 1998

  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, I want to encourage my colleagues to read 
the following article the Wall Street Journal which was written by a 
woman who owns a small business in the Sixth district of Georgia. 
Although the President may have good intentions when he suggests that 
raising the minimum wage would help working Americans, I believe that 
Ms. Cane points out that another minimum wage increase would actually 
hurt the people it is trying to help which include teenagers, working 
mothers, and single parents.

             [From the Wall Street Journal, March 13, 1998]

                        Minimum Wage: Who Pays?

                          (By Harriet F. Cane)

       President Clinton and his allies in Congress are calling 
     for another increase in the minimum wage. But they should 
     consider the experience of small-business owners like me, who 
     struggled through the last increase. I own and manage a small 
     cafe. I have had as many as 16 employees; I now have nine. 
     Most of them are teenagers; the rest, working mothers.
       Before the last increase I wrote letters to the president 
     and my congressmen. I explained that the mandated wage 
     increase was only the tip of the iceberg. To maintain the 
     wage increment for senior employees, I would have to raise 
     their wages above the new minimum. My monthly payroll would 
     increase by $570--and that didn't include the payroll taxes 
     for Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance and 
     workman's compensation. For my efforts I received nicely 
     worded form letters about the benefits of the wage increase.
       When the increase passed, I had to reduce staffing hours. 
     Result: I am working harder to earn my money. I already 
     worked six days a week, every week. The staffing cutbacks 
     increased my workload by 15 hours a week. I also cut back on 
     outside services, so I am now mopping my own floors two weeks 
     each month and doing all my own accounting, the weekly 
     laundry and as many of the repairs as I can.
       When Mr. Clinton signed the wage increase into law, he had 
     by his side a minimum-wage worker who stated that now she did 
     not have to choose between paying her electric bill or her 
     gas bill. The same evening, our local news interviewed a 
     woman who said she would now be able to buy her daughter a 
     compact disk player for graduation. I do not begrudge either 
     of these women their good fortune. But business owners work 
     hard too, and we also have to make tough choices. I suffer 
     from several chronic illnesses, and the wage increase has 
     forced me to cut back on medical care.
       Money for minimum wage increases has to come from 
     somewhere, Mr. Clinton's proposed increase would raise my 
     annual payroll by $7,200, forcing me to close my doors. To 
     the politicians I say this: You have the power to destroy the 
     American Dream for thousands of small business owners. If you 
     pass another increase in the minimum wage, you can tell the 
     teenagers and working mothers I employ why they no longer 
     have jobs. Then try asking for their votes.

     

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