[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 118 (Monday, July 23, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9767-S9768]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, tomorrow we will celebrate the first 
increase in the minimum wage in 10

[[Page S9768]]

years--in 10 years. That will be the first increase in the minimum 
wage. It will be increased to $5.85 an hour, followed by an additional 
70 cents one year later, and an additional 70 cents one year after 
that.
  This will mean new hope and opportunity for 13 million men and women. 
Primarily women, because almost 60 percent of minimum wage workers are 
women. It will benefit some 6.4 million children because more than half 
of the women who will benefit from the increase have children. So it 
will benefit the children. This means hope is on the way.
  It has been a long time, Mr. President. We have heard those who say: 
Well, the increase in the minimum wage is going to cost jobs, and it 
will work a hardship on these people. Of course, that is what they have 
said on every increase there has been. This is the 10th increase in the 
minimum wage, and they have been wrong each and every time. Currently, 
the second largest economy in Western Europe is Great Britain--they are 
paying $10.97 as a minimum wage. They have lifted almost a million 
children out of poverty. At the present time, Ireland also has one of 
the strongest economies in Western Europe and their minimum wage is 
$11.25 an hour, and they have the strongest economy in all of Western 
Europe. They have reduced child poverty by 40 percent, and their 
economy is strong. So $5.85 in this great country at this time is just 
a statement that many of us believe that work should pay, and that 
people who work 40 hours a week, 52 weeks of the year, should not live 
in poverty.
  So tomorrow will be an important day, Mr. President, and it is 
appropriate that the Senate be reminded of it.

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