[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 744]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    MINIMUM WAGE IS ARBITRARY NUMBER

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, despite vastly overwhelming numbers, I 
rise to address the House, and I apparently represent the entire body 
on this side of the aisle.
  I want to say this to my Democrat friends, and I understand the vote 
here and I understand the politics of minimum wage, but why $7.50 an 
hour, $7.15, whatever it is? Why not $8? Why not $9? It is an arbitrary 
number anyhow. Maybe $15, maybe $20 an hour. It is an arbitrary number. 
If we are command and control, central government planning anyhow, why 
is $7 an hour sufficient?
  In 1980, 15 percent of the workers in America were on minimum wage. 
Today, it is 2.5 percent. Who are they? Fifty-two percent are 
teenagers. Thirty percent are part-timers. And 40 percent have never 
held a job before.
  Many studies show that when the minimum wage increases, small 
businesses who will be most affected actually decrease the number of 
jobs, thus hurting those whom we are supposed to be helping.
  I would say to you that the reason most jobs do not pay minimum wage 
anymore is because the economy has moved the central government 
planning of Congress and the thinking of 1938 which set the law in 
motion to begin with. With that, Mr. Speaker, I look forward to the 
debate today.

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