[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16370]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              MINIMUM WAGE

  (Mrs. MALONEY of New York asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, today, millions of workers 
will be getting a much-deserved raise.
  In the first 100 days of this New Direction Congress, we voted to 
raise the wage floor for workers nationwide. Today, the Federal minimum 
wage goes to $6.55 per hour. This raise was long overdue.
  Prior to passage of this legislation, the minimum wage had sunk to 
its lowest point in over half a century. Most minimum wage workers are 
adults, many of whom are the sole breadwinners for their families.
  Families are being squeezed by the rising costs for basic necessities 
and wages that are failing to keep pace. I call this economy the stag-
gas-food-lation economy; stagnant wages, many workers have lost up to 
$1,200 since this administration took office; rising gas and food 
prices; and now inflation.
  Today's raise in the minimum wage provides an important boost for the 
millions of workers who have been left behind in this administration's 
economy.

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