[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 137 (Thursday, October 17, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10618-S10619]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S10618]]
                              MINIMUM WAGE

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, earlier today my friend and colleague, 
the Senator from Nevada, our deputy leader, made a unanimous consent 
request that we consider legislation to provide a three-step process to 
increase in the minimum wage by $1.50. The reason this request has been 
made is because over the period of these last 2 years, those of us on 
this side have made an extraordinary attempt to try and follow the 
regular order, the regular process, and have this legislation 
considered in the Senate. Effectively, we have been blocked all the 
way.
  In the final hours of this session, it appears we probably will be 
back for a lame duck session, but we want to make sure those who are 
affected by this legislation and, importantly, those who are not but 
those who are strong supporters of fairness and decency when it comes 
to the minimum wage, understand what is happening in the Senate. The 
bottom line is, the Republican leadership is blocking an increase in 
the minimum wage.
  I want to take a few moments this afternoon to review once again why 
this request was so urgent, why it was basically an emergency request 
and what the results would be with the objection that has been made by 
the leaders of the Republican Party.
  First of all, if we look over the period of the years going back to 
1968, and we look at what the real value of the minimum wage would be, 
this is the real value. This is comparing oranges and oranges in this 
case. The real value today would be $8.14. That is what it was in 1968. 
Today it is $5.15. By the end of this year, using constant figures, it 
will effectively be $4.70--$8.14 in 1968; $4.70 now in terms of real 
purchasing power.
  We have seen how over the period of these years there has been a 
gradual decline, but it really was not until 1980 that we had an 
administration that refused to consider what other administrations, 
Republicans and Democrats alike, considered, and that is a fair 
increase in the minimum wage.
  Then we had the battles. We had two different times we had small 
increases. In order to even get it considered, we had to reduce the 
increase and cut out a third year for the increase in the minimum wage. 
The last time we had to add close to $30 billion in tax breaks in order 
to effectively have an increase in the minimum wage.
  The minimum wage has been increased some 9 times. Eight times it was 
increased without a tax reduction, but not the last times. That was the 
condition by which our Republican friends would agree to even consider 
an extension. Now, without any kind of extension, we are falling back 
to $4.70.
  The petition that was presented by Senator Reid would have provided, 
over a 3-year period, an increase of $1.50. The objection today is 
unacceptable.
  Let us look at how the minimum wage is related to the issue of 
poverty in America. Going back again to the period of 1968 and during 
the several years during that period, the minimum wage was the poverty 
wage. What we have seen in recent years is how the minimum wage now has 
fallen so far below the poverty wage, it would have to be increased by 
about $3.50 an hour to even get up to the poverty line, which is the 
basic line that has been defined as the income which is necessary to 
provide the basics of surviving in the United States of America. Yet, 
we are expecting men and women to take these jobs, which they do, and 
pay them these totally inadequate wages.

  Mr. REID. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. KENNEDY. I will be glad to yield.
  Mr. REID. I was in the Chamber yesterday when the Senator made his 
terrific speech on this very important issue. I say to my friend from 
Massachusetts, is it not true that many people, probably people 
listening to this debate, think the minimum wage is for kids flipping 
hamburgers at McDonald's?
  Does the Senator know that 60 percent of the people who draw minimum 
wage are women and for 40 percent of those women that is the only money 
they have to support their families? Is the Senator aware of that?
  Mr. KENNEDY. The Senator is absolutely correct. The Senator's 
question anticipates one of the traditional arguments that have been 
suggested on the other side of the aisle that these are really 
teenagers who are getting this minimum wage.
  To the contrary, as the Senator has pointed out, actually 68 percent 
of those who receive it are adults. For half of those, the minimum wage 
job is the sole source of income for those families. A good percentage 
of those, I would say to the Senator, have two or three minimum wage 
jobs. That is what we have seen.
  We have heard opposition to this issue. We recognize, as I pointed 
out on other occasions, what this issue is really all about. We are 
talking about men and women who clean out the great buildings across 
our Nation, who work late at night, work hard, do very tough, difficult 
and dreary work, but nonetheless they maintain their dignity and their 
spirit. These are individuals who work in child care settings as 
assistants to child care providers. We are willing to entrust our most 
sacred individuals, our children, to minimum wage workers who are 
assistant teachers working in the classroom. Our most sacred trusts are 
our children, our parents, and grandparents.
  Those who are working with the teachers in the classroom very often 
are the minimum wage workers. Those who are working in the child care 
centers are most likely the minimum wage workers. Those who are working 
in the nursing homes to help take care of our parents and grandparents 
who built this country, fought in its wars, lifted the Nation out of 
the Depression, sacrificed immensely for their children, are minimum 
wage workers. Those are the ones we are talking about. So often when we 
talk about the minimum wage, we are talking about the graphs depicting 
cents per hour and the rest. But these are real individuals who are 
providing important services in our country and to our people, and they 
are being shortchanged.
  As I have said before, it is a women's issue because the great 
majority of the minimum wage workers are women. It is a civil rights 
issue because great numbers of people who are working for the minimum 
wage are men and women of color. It is a children's issue because how 
their parents are being paid and compensated is going to reflect on how 
those children are going to grow up. It is a family issue.
  We hear so much about family issues in the Senate. This is a family 
issue. When a parent has to work one or two minimum wage jobs, the time 
they are away from the home, the other parent often working in a 
similar kind of a situation, trying to make ends meet, the lack of time 
for them to come together to give these children the kinds of values 
and upbringing that they should have works to the disadvantage of these 
children.
  Beyond all that, it is a fairness issue. People understand in this 
country that men and women who are willing to work 40 hours a week, 52 
weeks of the year, should be treated fairly. We are talking about 
people working hard, long, difficult hours who ought to be treated 
fairly.
  Americans understand this issue of fairness. But our Republican 
friends do not. They have opposed increases in the minimum wage every 
single time, at least during the time I have been here in the last 40 
years.
  I remember one of those debates. In August of 1960, they were opposed 
to the last measure that came before this body at that time, and they 
were opposed to the minimum wage at that time, too. This has been over 
a long period of time.
  Mr. President, I remind our friends and the viewing public, we have 
taken the time to raise our own salaries, four different times over the 
last 6 years, some $16,000. But we are refusing to even let this issue 
be debated and come to a vote. That is wrong. It is unfair. It is 
unjust. The Democrats stand for those working families; for fairness 
and decency. They stand for the children of those minimum wage workers. 
They stand with the minimum-wage workers, men and women of dignity who 
are only asking to be treated fairly. We stand with them.
  We continue to ask why our Republican leaders in the Senate and the 
House of Representatives and in the White House refuse the opportunity 
to even debate this issue and refuse the opportunity to consider it and 
pass it. I regret that. We will continue to express this issue because 
that is the

[[Page S10619]]

only way we have ever been able to get this done in the past. We expect 
that will be the only way to get it done in the future. We will press 
it across the countryside.
  We ask our fellow Americans. This issue is one that concerns them. I 
don't know a single member of our side who would not support an 
increase in the minimum wage. I hope they will understand that when 
they go to the polls.

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