[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 125 (Thursday, September 23, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H8624]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 IN SUPPORT OF A MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Berkley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. BERKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to voice my strong support for 
an increase in America's minimum wage. The current minimum wage pays 
$10,712 a year for full-time work. That is not even enough to lift a 
family of three above the poverty line.
  America needs families earning a decent living, wages good enough to 
afford a home and a car and a quality education for our children. That 
is how we grow the American economy.
  This year my colleagues are proposing to increase the minimum wage by 
$1 over a period of 2 years. In my home State of Nevada more than 
60,000 workers would benefit from this increase.
  Opponents say that a minimum wage increase would be bad for the 
economy. I do not believe that. The last time we raised the minimum 
wage, the job market boomed, and unemployment fell to a historically 
low 4.2 percent. That is what we enjoy now, and our economy has never 
been stronger.
  Keeping minimum wage workers below the poverty lines means that 
taxpayers everywhere are in effect picking up the tab for the costs of 
that poverty, Mr. Speaker, whether it be through food stamps, hospital 
emergency room visits or the social consequences of children neglected 
by their parents who work excessively long hours just to get by.
  An increase in minimum wage benefits businesses, families, women, 
children, minorities, every aspect of our communities. It benefits all 
of us.
  Congress just gave itself a $4600 pay increase, more than two times 
the pay raise that the minimum wage bill proposes. Yet here we are 
still debating the merits of a pay raise for the people who serve our 
food, care for our children, clean our office buildings and perform 
countless other jobs that our economy depends on and are vital to the 
daily functions of our society.
  Americans deserve a decent day's pay for a hard day's work. Let us do 
the right thing in this Congress. Let us pass the minimum wage 
increase. America's working families need it, they deserve it, and they 
should have it.

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