[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 6 (Thursday, January 11, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E74-E75]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     FAIR MINIMUM WAGE ACT OF 2007

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. MARTIN T. MEEHAN

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 10, 2007

  Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Speaker, today is a day that is long overdue.
  Despite the fact that 4 out of 5 Americans support a minimum wage 
increase, the last Congress did not bring up a clean minimum wage bill.
  For more than 9 years, the minimum wage has been frozen. Its value 
today is at its lowest level since 1955--when Eisenhower was President.

[[Page E75]]

  This Congressional neglect--again, 9 years since the last increase--
is the longest since the minimum wage was created. The results have 
been devastating.
  A full-time minimum wage worker earns only $10,712 per year--almost 
$6,000 under the poverty line for a family of three.
  Furthermore, this low wage is often the only wage of the house--
nearly half of all minimum wage workers are the sole breadwinner in 
their households.
  Today, we will change that and millions of workers will benefit. This 
extra money--nearly $4,000 for a full-time minimum wage earner--means 
that they won't have to choose between buying drugs for their children, 
and putting food on the family dinner table.
  It is unacceptable for a person working a full-time job in the 
richest country in the world to live in poverty.
  Mr. Speaker, it is high time that we pay American workers what they 
deserve: a fair day's wage for a day's work.
  Raising the minimum wage is the right thing to do, and I urge my 
colleagues to support it.

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