[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 26 (Thursday, March 9, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H761]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TIME TO INCREASE MINIMUM WAGE

  (Mr. WISE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of increasing the 
minimum wage for America's workers. In West Virginia alone, at least 5 
percent of the hourly workforce makes the bare minimum wage, but by 
raising it from $5.15 an hour to $6.15 an hour over 2 years, at least 
106,000 workers would get an increase. That would also mean 50,000 
full-time workers in West Virginia would see an increase in their 
wages. Who are they? It is the senior citizen who is cooking the 
biscuits in a convenience store. It is the mother who is working full 
time at a health care center. Today in West Virginia, a full-time 
minimum-wage worker with two children earns $10,700 a year, or $3,200 
below the Federal poverty line. I hear the argument that the minimum 
wage only goes to students. I was one of those students working my way 
through college on the minimum wage, and the only wage increase I ever 
got was when this Congress raised the minimum wage. It is time to give 
workers an increase.

                          ____________________