[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 4912]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               INTRODUCTION OF THE FAIR MINIMUM WAGE ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 27, 2003

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, today I am honored to 
be joined by 73 of my colleagues in introducing legislation to increase 
the minimum wage. The legislation that we are introducing today 
provides for a $1.50 increase in the minimum wage, in two steps. Our 
bill raises the minimum wage from its current level of $5.15 per hour 
to $5.90 sixty days after enactment and raises it again to $6.65 one 
year thereafter. In addition, the legislation extends the applicability 
of the minimum wage to the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
Islands. Our bill is identical to legislation introduced in the other 
body by the Democratic Leader, Mr. Daschle, and 34 of his colleagues.
  The minimum wage has not increased from its present level of $5.15 
since 1997. A minimum wage worker who works 40 hours a week, fifty-two 
weeks a year earns $10,712--almost $7,500 below the poverty level for a 
family of four, more than $4,300 less than the poverty level for a 
family of three, and $1,200 less than the poverty level for a family of 
two. The real value of the minimum wage today is 30 percent below its 
peak in 1968 and 19 percent below where it stood in 1981 at the start 
of the Reagan Administration. Even if the minimum wage is increased to 
$6.65 by 2004, the real value of the minimum wage will still be below 
its 1981 level. However, by enacting this legislation we will restore 
purchasing power to minimum wage workers, better enabling them to 
support themselves and their families and to more fully participate in 
our economy.
  Raising the minimum wage to $6.65 will lift the wages of seven 
million low-wage workers. While women makeup less than half of the 
workforce, sixty-one percent of the workers who will benefit from a 
minimum wage increase are women. One-third of the affected workers who 
benefit from a minimum wage increase are African American or Hispanic, 
though those groups together make up less than a quarter of the 
workforce. A minimum wage increase is especially beneficial to workers 
in low-wage industries and occupations, including those employed in 
sales, service, and food preparation, and especially those in retail 
trade.
  A $1.50 increase in the minimum wage will add $3,000 to the annual 
income of full-time minimum wage workers. For a low-income family of 
three, $3000 means 15 months of groceries, 7 months of utilities, or 
tuition for a community college degree. Enacting this legislation will 
restore purchasing power to minimum wage workers and better enable them 
to support themselves, their families and the economy. Work should pay. 
No one who works for a living should have to live in poverty.
  Mr. Speaker, a fair increase in the minimum wage is long overdue. The 
failure of Congress to increase the minimum wage is driving more and 
more working families into poverty. We owe it to them and to the Nation 
to act quickly on this legislation.

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