[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 3270-3271]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 CALLING FOR THE IMMEDIATE CONSIDERATION OF THE ``FAIR LABOR STANDARDS 
                             ACT OF 2005''

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. JOE BACA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 9, 2006

  Mr. BACA. Mr. Speaker, I rise to call for the immediate passage of H. 
Res. 614, a bill which allows for the consideration of the Fair labor 
Standards Act of 2005, to provide for an increase in the Federal 
minimum wage.
  The Fair Labor Standards Act of 2005 will provide a desperately 
needed raise in the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour.
  The members of the Congress that have denied a minimum wage increase 
while voting themselves seven pay increases worth $28,000 should be 
ashamed of themselves.
  On Tuesday, January 17th, 2006, Maryland became the 18th state in the 
Nation to enact a law that will make Maryland's minimum wage higher 
than the federal. Even in my home state of California, the minimum wage 
is $6.75 an hour. The current minimum has not been raised in over 7 
years!
  The minimum wage was established to assure that people who work are 
not forced to live in poverty. Wage inequality keeps increasing in the 
United States, in part because of the declining real value of the 
minimum wage, yet this Congress refused to adjust the minimum wage even 
for inflation. If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation since 
1968 (when it was $1.60 an hour) it would have been $9.14 an hour in 
2005.
  Nearly 36 million people live below the poverty-line today--4.3 
million more than when President Bush took office--and that number 
includes 13 million children. Among full-time, year-round workers, 
poverty has doubled since the late 1970s--from roughly 1.3 million then 
to more than 2.6 million today. And a report from the Children's 
Defense Fund shows that a single parent working full-time at the 
current minimum wage earns enough to cover only 40 percent of the cost 
of raising two children.

[[Page 3271]]

  Today, the minimum wage is 33 percent of the average hourly wage of 
American workers, the lowest level since 1949.
  Contrary to misinformation spread by opponents of the minimum wage, 
adults make up the largest share of workers who would benefit from a 
minimum wage increase. Forty percent of minimum wage workers are the 
sole breadwinners in their families. Moreover, despite what many 
opponents of the minimum wage say, there is no evidence of job loss 
from the last minimum wage increase.
  A hike in the federal minimum wage is long overdue! We must restore 
the value of the federal wage floor in order to lift families out of 
poverty. An increase in the minimum wage is both humane and good for 
the economy because it would raise the standard of living of millions 
of Americans, while providing the economy with a needed boost by 
increasing the purchasing power of working families.
  Seven and a half million workers and their families would directly 
benefit from the proposed minimum wage increase. An additional eight 
million workers would benefit indirectly, via resulting raises. Women 
and minorities would especially benefit. 61 percent of minimum wage 
earners are women and almost one-third of those women are raising 
children; And 35 percent of them are their families' sole earners! 19 
percent of minimum wage earners are Hispanic American; and 15 percent 
are African American.
  Women and minorities are disproportionately affected by the refusal 
of this Congress to pass a higher minimum wage. This issue shouldn't be 
a political debate. It should simply be about helping America's 
families. And that help won't come until workers in those low-wage 
occupations are paid more than poverty-level wages. I have always and 
will continue to fight for a minimum wage that provides a future for 
America's families.

                          ____________________