[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13844]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        RAISE MINIMUM WAGE TODAY

  (Mr. BUTTERFIELD asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, House Republicans have a chance to give 
more than 6 million Americans a much-deserved pay raise. Would you 
believe that the minimum wage has not been increased in 9 years? It is 
the second longest amount of time that hardworking Americans have had 
to go without a pay raise, resulting in the hourly wage being at its 
lowest level in 50 years.
  House Democrats want to expand economic opportunity for all 
Americans. We want to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to 
$7.25. It is only fair. These workers play by the rules every day. All 
they want in return is to make a living wage.
  Do my Republican colleagues really believe that $5.15 an hour is 
still a living wage? House Republicans claim that the only people who 
make the minimum wage are teenagers. Wrong.
  Mr. Speaker, 75 percent of minimum wage workers are either the sole 
or one of two breadwinners in the family. House Republicans also like 
to claim that if we increase the minimum wage, jobs will be lost. Wrong 
again. Today in the States that mandate a higher minimum wage, job 
growth has actually gotten higher. No more excuses.

                          ____________________