[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 17, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H5917-H5918]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Wisconsin (Ms. Moore) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to urge my colleagues to vote for the 
Raise the Minimum Wage Act.
  In my district of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Milwaukeeans are stuck at the 
Federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour set over a decade ago. These 
workers struggle to support themselves and their families with their 
meager wages. However hard they try, at $7.25 an hour, they are working 
themselves into poverty, since $15,000 a year is below the Federal 
poverty level.
  What do these workers do? They are forced to juggle multiple jobs and 
contend with long and unpredictable hours. Meanwhile, congressional 
inaction on minimum wage workers' paychecks continues to erode this 
basic labor standard.
  This inaction has contributed to out-of-control economic inequality 
and the decline of the middle class. Hardworking Americans working at 
the minimum wage are, indeed, working below the poverty level. Not only 
are they working below the poverty level, but they are supplying cheap 
labor to wealthy corporations that have benefited from our tax policy.
  It also requires you, hardworking taxpayers, to subsidize those 
corporations. Why? Because these workers working 40 hours a week still 
qualify for public benefits like food stamps and Medicaid because those 
employers don't provide those benefits.
  I personally know the hardships of surviving on less than a living 
wage. That is why I have fought throughout my entire career in public 
service to lift America's vulnerable workers, not just to help them 
make ends meet but to empower them and to help them reach their 
ambitions.
  I am so proud that I protested for fair wages alongside fellow 
Milwaukeeans in 2014 as part of the national Fight for $15 campaign. I 
was arrested for participating in the fight for $15 an hour in that 
protest, and I am grateful for the courage demonstrated by the 
protesters nationwide who joined the Fight for $15.
  I thank you for the personal risks you have taken. We are voting on 
the Raise the Minimum Wage Act because of the momentum that you have 
created.
  Raising the minimum wage will have countless benefits. To name a few, 
it will lift 40 million workers out of poverty, boost the economy, and 
spread the benefits of economic growth that President Trump has hoarded 
for the wealthy few.

[[Page H5918]]

  Raising the national minimum wage is well overdue, and I urge my 
colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the Raise the Wage Act.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their 
remarks to the Chair and not to a perceived viewing audience.

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