[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5299-5306]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              MINIMUM WAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Walker). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 2015, the gentleman from California (Mr. 
DeSaulnier) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the 
minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. DeSAULNIER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. DeSAULNIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support the Raise the 
Wage Act that was introduced almost exactly 1 year ago today.
  Raising the minimum wage is critical to addressing income inequality 
in the United States, one of the most pressing issues facing our 
Nation. But the majority has not even called a hearing on this issue.
  Yesterday, the Committee on Education and the Workforce Democrats 
held our own forum on this issue, during which we considered the 
evidence in support of raising the minimum wage. We heard from business 
leaders and economists that raising the wage will reduce workforce 
turnover, stimulate consumer spending, and grow jobs.
  The evidence is absolutely clear that raising the minimum wage will 
give 35 million workers a raise and lift 4.5 million Americans out of 
poverty. It is also abundantly clear that raising the minimum wage will 
benefit businesses in the U.S. economy. That may be why in a recent 
poll from Republican pollster Frank Luntz, 80 percent of business 
executives supported raising the minimum wage.
  The record could not be more clear: raising the minimum wage is good 
for workers, businesses, and the American economy. That is why today I 
include in the Record testimony from yesterday's Member forum on the 
Business Case for Raising the Federal Minimum Wage, presented by David 
Cooper of the Economic Policy Institute; Sherry Deutschmann of 
LetterLogic, Inc.; Scott Nash of MOM's Organic; and Carmen Ortiz Larsen 
of AQUAS, Inc.

 Written Remarks from Carmen Ortiz Larsen, President of AQUAS Inc. and 
  Chair of the Board of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Montgomery 
                               County, MD

 Submitted to the House Education & the Workforce Committee--Minority 
 Panel on the Business and Economic Case for Raising the Minimum Wage, 
                             April 27, 2016

       My name is Carmen Ortiz Larsen, and I support an increase 
     in the Federal minimum wage to at least $12 by 2020; I 
     support the Raise the Wage Act. I am the owner and President 
     of an Engineering and Information Technology firm called 
     AQUAS Incorporated. I am also the Chair of the Board of the 
     Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Montgomery County, Maryland.
       AQUAS Inc. staff includes professionals, administrative 
     personnel, and field technicians. Our lowest wage is $14 an 
     hour. Our plan is to have the minimum wage in our workplace 
     at $16/hour within the next 18 months.
       Being a small business owner is hard work. Small business 
     owners have to be frugal, prudent, smart and alert to 
     opportunities, navigating cash flow ups and downs, and 
     managing cost increases and price competitiveness. 
     Controlling costs is essential to ensure sufficient margins 
     for funding growth, long-term success and customer 
     satisfaction. If I don't control costs wisely, though, the 
     dollars I save in one area of the business could cost me more 
     in other areas.
       Some years ago we sought to keep costs down by using the 
     lowest legal minimum wage as compensation for clerical and 
     field staff. We found that these workers had a greater 
     incidence of health issues, absenteeism and turnover. The 
     cost of replacing and retraining staff outweighed any savings 
     in keeping their pay rate low.
       We found that it was a smarter business policy to raise the 
     hourly rate for the lower paid jobs. The results were better 
     staff morale, increased loyalty and better service to the 
     customer. We gained a more stable workforce and improved 
     performance.
       Markets are competitive, and every year costs go up. We 
     have to face yearly increases in cost of insurance, supplies, 
     advertising, facilities, services. We take this for granted 
     as the cost of doing business. It should be no different to 
     expect wage increases, especially for the lowest paid 
     workers. All employees deserve a wage that is sufficient to 
     live without the anxiety of being left without food or 
     shelter.
       AQUAS does not believe that the answer to cost management 
     or competitive challenges lies in paying our staff poverty 
     wages; this simply diminishes the quality and ongoing success 
     of our enterprise. Instead, we remain

[[Page 5300]]

     competitive through efficiencies and quality improvements, 
     through innovative ways to maintain reasonable profitability 
     and improve the customer's experience. Our staff is part of 
     who we are as a company, and they deserve to make ends meet.
       We look to you as elected officials to set boundaries that 
     cut across special interest areas, to make those tough 
     decisions that create a delicate balance between an 
     unrestrained commercial interest and a level playing field 
     for businesses and acceptable conditions for individual 
     sustainability. The current minimum wage adjusted for 
     inflation is lower than it was in 1950. This is simply 
     untenable and should be unacceptable in our country.
       The current $7.25 an hour does not provide minimum wage 
     workers with a wage with which they can live with dignity, 
     have a decent home, nutritious food, and a reliable way to 
     get back and forth from work, without worrying about whether 
     or not they will lose their job or their family if they 
     can't. The minimum wage is so low that workers have to seek a 
     second job or public assistance of one kind or another. I 
     want to contribute to my community--not burden it by paying 
     wages my employees can't live on. Raising the federal minimum 
     wage is long overdue.
       In my community engagement as a business owner and as the 
     Chair of the Board of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, I see 
     an awful lot of the consequences of poverty wages in the 
     community; I see families that fall apart and struggle to 
     stay healthy, with each adult working more than one job, and 
     still having a hard time making ends meet. These people are 
     our consumer base, they are our neighbors, they buy from us, 
     they vote for you. I don't want my government supporting 
     policies like an inadequate minimum wage that promote 
     poverty, weaken consumer demand, and ultimately hurt my 
     business and other businesses. We have to set a reasonable 
     wage floor.
       I am here today to testify on behalf of a decent minimum 
     wage that will reinforce employee productivity and ensure 
     that when an employee goes home after work, they have the 
     time, energy and enthusiasm to give to their families and 
     community without fear, without anxiety and without hunger.
       Thank you.
                                  ____



      Written Remarks from Scott Nash, Owner, MOM's Organic Market

 Submitted to the House Education & the Workforce Committee--Minority 
Panel on Business and Economic Case for Raising the Minimum Wage April 
                                27, 2016

       My name is Scott Nash. I am the founder and CEO of a 
     grocery chain called MOM's Organic Market. With an investment 
     of $100, I started MOM's in 1987 out of my mother's garage in 
     Beltsville, MD. We currently have 15 locations in Virginia, 
     Maryland, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. By the 
     end of this year as we expand into New Jersey and elsewhere, 
     we will have 18 stores and more than 1,000 employees. Our 
     annual sales are more than $200 million. We support raising 
     the federal minimum wage to at least $12 by 2020.
       In 1980, just as I turned 15, I took my first part-time 
     job. I ran the fry station at Burger King for $3.10 per hour. 
     That's actually more than today's minimum wage adjusted for 
     the cost of living. I was surrounded by full time adult co-
     workers--some with children--and they relied on their 
     paychecks to survive. Most of my coworkers had good 
     attitudes, even though every day their lives were permeated 
     with struggle and stress.
       A minimum wage that is too low puts millions of people 
     between a rock and hard place. Over the years, we at MOM's 
     have gradually increased our hourly minimum wage from $8.00 
     to $11. I'm happy to report that after multiple raises to $9, 
     $10, and $11, MOM's is the most profitable we've ever been.
       All good businessmen know that their most important asset 
     is their employees. At MOM's, we consider paying a higher 
     wage not a burden, but rather a high-return strategic 
     investment. Our workforce is more productive, engaged and 
     dedicated. They are happier, have less stress in their 
     overall lives, and feel appreciated and secure.
       With this higher employee morale and strengthening of our 
     corporate culture, our retention rates have skyrocketed over 
     the years, which has driven down our training and hiring 
     costs. Studies show that the costs of hiring and training are 
     substantial--thousands of dollars per employee. An employee 
     generally doesn't operate at full efficiency until he or she 
     has been working for at least 5 months. Longer term employees 
     also offer more expertise and better customer service, which 
     helps increase revenues. Customers love shopping at places 
     with engaged employees.
       Raising the minimum wage is smart business strategy. I 
     can't hire anyone unless people buy our products. People like 
     me start companies to fulfill the needs and desires of 
     consumers. These needs and desires are not created by 
     entrepreneurs; rather they are fulfilled by entrepreneurs. 
     When workers' purses and wallets have more money in them, 
     they spend more at local businesses. Increased consumer 
     spending means more entrepreneurs start companies, the 
     economy grows, and more wealth is created at all levels. One 
     of the best quotes I've heard on job creation was, ``For a 
     CEO to take credit for job creation is like a squirrel taking 
     credit for evolution.'' Contrary to what some CEOs claim, 
     raising the minimum wage will actually create jobs, not cut 
     them.
       Many full-time hourly workers who are paid the minimum wage 
     are also dependent on government subsidies, as the current 
     minimum wage is not a living wage. A low minimum wage 
     essentially amounts to a tax-payer subsidy for incredibly 
     profitable large corporations and industries. Want to see 
     unnecessary government spending go down, raise the minimum 
     wage!
       As a member of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, I can 
     share that raising the minimum wage has strong support from 
     the business community. To summarize, raising the minimum 
     wage will increase American productivity, decrease the number 
     of full-time workers on government entitlement programs, grow 
     consumer spending and the economy, increase wealth, and 
     improve the lives of hard working people. It's time we raise 
     the minimum wage to $12 by 2020.
                                  ____



   WRITTEN REMARKS FROM SHERRY STEWART DEUTSCHMANN, FOUNDER AND CEO, 
LETTERLOGIC, INC. AND COUNCIL MEMBER, NATIONAL WOMEN'S BUSINESS COUNCIL

  Submitted to the House Education & the Workforce Committee Minority 
Panel on the Business and Economic--Case for Raising the Minimum Wage, 
                             April 27, 2016

       Representative Scott, thank you for inviting me to speak 
     today. It is an honor.
       My name is Sherry Stewart Deutschmann and I am the founder 
     and CEO of LetterLogic, a small business in Nashville, TN. I 
     am also a member of the National Women's Business Council, a 
     small group of female business leaders whose role is to 
     advise the Small Business Administration, the President, and 
     Congress on issues related to female entrepreneurship.
       Please allow me to share some basic background information 
     on myself and my business. In 2002, as a single mom with only 
     a high-school education, I cashed in my 401k and had a week-
     long yard sale to raise the capital needed to start my own 
     company, LetterLogic, in the basement of my home. That bet on 
     me turned out to be a good one because my company quickly 
     outgrew my basement and is now a $36 Million company. Indeed, 
     our growth has enabled us to be recognized by INC Magazine as 
     an INC 5000 company for nine consecutive years, an honor 
     bestowed upon the fastest growing privately held companies in 
     the US.
       My company processes and delivers patient billing 
     statements for hospitals nationwide, doing so in both 
     traditional print/mail formats and also electronically. 
     Though our business has a high-tech component, most of our 
     jobs are in the factory, where our employees operate 
     machinery that prints, folds, inserts, and then sorts over 
     235,000 bills each day. These positions could easily be 
     filled at the minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour in 
     Tennessee. However, our entire business model was built on my 
     belief that I could build a better company if I took 
     extraordinary care of the employees. I believed that well-
     cared for employees could better focus on turning out a high 
     quality product and impeccable service, and their loyalty and 
     dedication would create a corresponding loyalty among our 
     clients. And, I believed that a loyal client base would 
     happily pay a higher price for the best service.
       Though we've always paid the highest wages in our industry, 
     until a few years ago our entry-level pay was $12 an hour. At 
     that time, we began looking at our employees and trying to 
     understand the kind of life we were enabling them to create, 
     and as our ``litmus test'' we used the following baseline: 
     ``If the two lowest-paid employees of LetterLogic got 
     married, what kind of housing could they afford? Could they 
     afford to start a family? What schools would their children 
     attend? How much of their income could they save?'' And, at 
     that point, we raised our starting wage to $14 an hour, and 
     then just a few months later, we raised it to $16.
       In the months since we increased our minimum starting wage 
     from $12 an hour to where it is now at $16 an hour, my 
     company has grown from annual revenues of $27.5 Million to 
     $36 Million, 25% growth over a 27-month period. But what 
     happened to the bottom line is even more striking. In that 
     same time frame, our net profit increased 300%. Yes, when we 
     increased our minimum starting wage from $12 an hour to $16 
     an hour, our revenue increased by 25% and our profit margin 
     tripled. Yes, we made other smart business decisions that 
     helped us achieve those results, but we believe that putting 
     the needs of the employees above all else was a major 
     contributor.
       Moreover, my fast-growth company has zero debt--also a 
     factor we attribute to the financial results of paying our 
     employees fairly.
       We are confident that our results are duplicable, that 
     putting the needs of the employees first is a great business 
     model. During the last three years, we've polled our clients 
     bi-annually and they express their happiness and loyalty when 
     100% of the respondents say they'd recommend us, and 99% say

[[Page 5301]]

     they rank our service as Excellent or Good. But they 
     DEMONSTRATE their loyalty by staying with us. Indeed, over 
     the last three years, our revenue churn rate has been only 
     3.2%.
       I'd also like to touch briefly on how a higher minimum wage 
     affects the local economy by sharing the story of Kim, a 
     woman we hired a few years ago. She says this is the first 
     workplace in her life that she is making enough money that 
     she has to work only one job. She is now able to fully commit 
     her energy and attention to her job at LetterLogic, taking 
     great care of our customers and better care of her family. 
     And, she left an open position for someone else to fill.
       From my experience operating a small business, I can attest 
     to the value of paying a living wage. When employees are paid 
     a wage they can live on, they are better able to focus on the 
     demands of their jobs. The quality of the goods and services 
     they create are much better and build customer loyalty to the 
     point where the company can be more profitable and 
     sustainable.
       When I pay a starting wage of $16 plus benefits my 
     employees have more money to spend at other businesses. The 
     very least other businesses can do is pay a wage that allows 
     their employees to afford the basics.
       My business can set a good example, but I can't do it 
     alone. The businesses with me in Business for a Fair Minimum 
     Wage can't do it alone. The federal minimum wage, which 
     Tennessee follows, has not been raised since 2009.
       Increasing the minimum wage to $12 by 2020, as called for 
     in the Raise the Wage Act, is an overdue step in raising the 
     floor for businesses, communities and our economy. Raising 
     the minimum wage will increase productivity and reduce the 
     costly turnover that plagues so many short-sighted low-wage 
     businesses. It will boost sales by putting more money in the 
     pockets of workers who most need to spend it.
       Raising the minimum wage is good for business!
                                  ____


   The Impact of Raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $12 by 2020 on 
                  Workers, Businesses, and the Economy


    Testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the 
                         Workforce Member Forum

 (By David Cooper, Senior Economic Analyst, Economic Policy Institute, 
                            April 27, 2016)

       Ranking Member Scott, members of the committee, and Members 
     of the Democratic Caucus, thank you for inviting me to speak 
     with you today. My name is David Cooper. I am the Senior 
     Economic Analyst at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a 
     nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization that focuses on 
     improving the economic conditions of low- and middle-income 
     workers and their families.
       I am going to speak today about the appropriateness of a 
     $12 federal minimum wage in 2020, and what the research tells 
     us about the effect of raising the minimum wage on workers, 
     businesses, and the economy.
       First, it cannot be emphasized enough that the current 
     federal minimum wage of $7.25 is incredibly low by every 
     relevant benchmark. In 1968, the high point of the federal 
     minimum wage in inflation-adjusted terms, the minimum wage 
     was equal to roughly $10 an hour in today's dollars. (Using 
     the Bureau of Labor Statistic's longest-running measure of 
     inflation, it was worth $10.95 in today's dollars; using the 
     Bureau's current method for measuring inflation, it was worth 
     about $9.60.) This means that minimum wage workers today are 
     paid between a quarter and a third less than what similar 
     jobs paid almost 50 years ago, depending on how you measure 
     inflation.
       As a consequence, the majority of low-wage workers in 
     America today must rely on federal and state public 
     assistance programs in order to afford their basic needs: 53 
     percent of workers earning less than $12 an hour rely on some 
     form of means-tested government assistance--such as food 
     stamps, Medicaid, refundable tax credits, and housing and 
     energy subsidies. The federal government spends over $78 
     billion dollars each year to support the families of workers 
     earning less than $12 an hour, and this is undoubtedly an 
     underestimate because it does not include the value of 
     Medicaid or premium subsidies in healthcare exchanges. To be 
     clear, these dollars are going to workers and families who 
     desperately need this support and if anything, our anti-
     poverty programs need to be strengthened and expanded. Yet 
     there is considerable savings to be had in these programs if 
     businesses were simply held to the same standard to which 
     they were held in the 1960s. In a paper EPI released last 
     year, we estimated that federal antipoverty programs would 
     save $17 billion annually if the minimum wage were raised to 
     $12 by 2020. That very savings could be used to strengthen 
     government's antipoverty tools.
       The current minimum wage is also exceptionally low relative 
     to the pay of typical workers. In the 1960s, the minimum wage 
     was equal to just over half of the median full-time wage in 
     the United States (between 52 and 55 percent of the median, 
     depending upon how one measures wages). Today, the federal 
     minimum wage is equal to roughly 36 percent of the median 
     wage. This means that someone working at or near the minimum 
     wage is much farther away from a middle class job than 
     similar workers a generation ago. Sometimes it is said that 
     minimum wage jobs are just starter jobs for young people 
     entering the labor force. First of all, we know that is not 
     true--the average age of workers that would get a raise from 
     a minimum wage increase to $12 is 35 years old and the vast 
     majority (90 percent) are 20 or older. Yet even in cases 
     where it is true, those young people are starting off their 
     careers much further from the middle class than young people 
     of previous generations.
       Raising the federal minimum wage to $12 by 2020, as the 
     Raise the Wage Act would do, would restore the national wage 
     floor to the same relative position that it had in the late 
     1960s. Under conservative assumptions for wage growth at the 
     median, $12 in 2020 would be equal to roughly 54 percent of 
     the full-time median wage, bringing low-wage workers closer 
     to the pay of a middle-class job, and helping undo some of 
     the growth in wage inequality that has taken place since 
     1968.
       Whenever increasing the minimum wage is discussed, there is 
     always concern that doing so might hurt job growth or imperil 
     businesses that employ low-wage workers. In the 22 times the 
     federal minimum wage has been raised, and the over 300 times 
     that states or localities have raised their minimum wages 
     just since the 1980, these concerns have never materialized. 
     The effect of increasing the minimum wage on employment is 
     probably the most studied topic in labor economics, and the 
     consensus of the literature is that moderate increases in the 
     minimum wage have little to no effect on employment. In fact, 
     this was the conclusion of a letter signed by over 600 PhD 
     economists--including 8 winners of the Nobel Prize--sent to 
     the leaders of both houses of Congress in 2014. The letter 
     stated, ``In recent years there have been important 
     developments in the academic literature on the effect of 
     increases in the minimum wage on employment, with the weight 
     of evidence now showing that increases in the minimum wage 
     have had little or no negative effect on the employment of 
     minimum-wage workers, even during times of weakness in the 
     labor market.
       The most detailed study in recent years of the minimum 
     wage's effects was published in a 2014 book by economists 
     Dale Belman and Paul Wolfson. Belman and Wolfson conducted a 
     meta-analysis (a study of studies) of over 200 scholarly 
     papers on the minimum wage published since 1991. They 
     conclude that ``modest minimum wage increases raise wages for 
     the working poor without substantially affecting employment 
     or work hours, providing solid benefits with small costs.'' 
     (p.401) Belman and Wolfson's book was subsequently awarded 
     Princeton University's Bowen award for the book making the 
     most important contribution toward understanding public 
     policy related to the operation of labor markets.
       In recent years, research has found not only that have 
     minimum wage increases have had no measurable negative 
     effects, but they have often produced positive effects on the 
     functioning of the low-wage labor market. Higher minimum 
     wages tend to reduce turnover and increase job tenure among 
     low-wage workers--leading to productivity improvements and 
     lower turnover costs at affected businesses.
       Most importantly, research has consistently shown that 
     raising the minimum wage boosts the pay of low-wage workers 
     who typically come from low- and moderate-income households. 
     Because these households typically spend a larger portion of 
     their income than wealthier households, the rising wage floor 
     can provide a modest boost to consumer spending, generating 
     new business activity, particularly in lower-income areas 
     where consumer demand is more depressed. And this is true 
     even if some firms have to enact small price increases as a 
     result of the higher minimum wage. Pay raises for low-wage 
     workers resulting from higher minimum wages are vastly larger 
     than any resulting price increases--typically by a factor of 
     more than 10 to 1. This is because labor costs are only one 
     piece of businesses' overall operating costs, and as 
     previously noted, raising pay simultaneously generates 
     savings from higher productivity and lower turnover.
       In summary, raising the minimum wage to $12 by 2020 would 
     boost the wages of tens of millions of American workers, 
     increase low-income households' buying power, reduce reliance 
     on federal assistance programs, and bring the wage floor back 
     up to the same relative value it had in the 1960s. The 
     research indicates that such an increase would not be overly 
     burdensome on businesses or hamper job growth, and could, in 
     fact, strengthen the consumer demand that drives the U.S. 
     economy. I strongly encourage Congress to pass the Raise the 
     Wage Act.

  Mr. DeSAULNIER. Mr. Speaker, it is past time for Congress to raise 
the Federal minimum wage. We learned yesterday that, of the people who 
would most be impacted by raising the minimum wage, only 10 percent are 
teens, as opposed to a popular misconception. In fact, the average age 
affected is 35, and 56 percent are women. In addition, nearly one-third 
of all Hispanics and

[[Page 5302]]

one-third of all African Americans would get a raise by enacting this 
act, and 30 percent of working mothers would get a raise.
  It is time that we stand up for hardworking people all across America 
and give them a well-deserved and long-overdue raise.
  I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano).
  Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from the State of 
California, my home State of California, for yielding.
  I am glad to stand here today in support of the Raise the Wage Act. I 
want to thank my colleagues for standing with me today to promote the 
benefits of increasing the minimum wage.
  While critics warn of mass layoffs and economic calamity, studies 
consistently show that a higher minimum wage will stimulate the economy 
and lift workers out of poverty.
  We cannot allow ideology and partisanship to stop millions of workers 
from earning a living wage. A report on poverty in my own community, 
which my office produced last year, revealed the urgency of this issue. 
Here is what we found:
  Last year, a single parent of two kids working full time at the 
minimum wage in Riverside, California, was likely to fall $600 short of 
what they need to get by every month. Not only does this situation 
violate the premise of the American Dream that working hard and playing 
by the rules will land you in the middle class, it also damages our 
economy.
  A University of California, Berkeley study found that low wages cost 
American taxpayers $152 billion each year on social welfare programs 
for working families. We are effectively subsidizing companies that do 
not pay their workers a living wage.
  Now, there is a myth--a myth--that the typical minimum wage earner is 
a high school student, a high school student living at home working 
part time. But young people make up just a tiny fraction of the minimum 
wage workforce. Eighty-nine percent of workers who would benefit from a 
Federal minimum wage increase to $12 per hour are actually age 20 or 
older. Nearly 40 percent of this workforce is older than 40.
  These are not kids on a summer job. These are parents who are seeking 
to provide for their children. With more money in their pockets, these 
workers could take a few extra trips to the grocery store, buy new 
school supplies for their children, or save up to buy a home, all of 
which would help stimulate our economy.
  All of us have expressed serious concerns about rising income 
inequality in our communities. We all understand that the economy has 
been thrown out of balance because the rules that protect workers from 
exploitation have atrophied over time. The minimum wage is a clear 
example of that trend.
  The real value of the Federal minimum wage has declined 24 percent 
since 1968. Workers are not worth 24 percent less than they were 50 
years ago, and families cannot get by with 24 percent less than they 
did 50 years ago.
  Raising the minimum wage is not only good policy, it is popular 
policy. Paying workers a living wage reduces turnover, improves worker 
morale, and increases productivity. For those reasons, a poll by the 
American Sustainable Business Council found that 60 percent of small-
business owners support raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour by 
2020. And most revealing, the Republican pollster Frank Luntz found 
that 80 percent of business executives support raising the minimum 
wage.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an article from The Washington 
Post describing this secret poll done by Frank Luntz of these business 
executives--the very one I mentioned in my remarks--that found that 80 
percent of business executives support increasing the minimum wage.

                [From the Washington Post, Apr. 4, 2016]

 Leaked Documents Show Strong Business Support for Raising the Minimum 
                                  Wage


          So why do most chambers of commerce still oppose it?

                          (By Lydia DePillis)

       Whenever minimum wage increases are proposed on the state 
     or federal level, business groups tend to fight them tooth 
     and nail. But actual opposition may not be as united as the 
     groups' rhetoric might make it appear, according to internal 
     research conducted by a leading consultant for state chambers 
     of commerce.
       The survey of 1,000 business executives across the country 
     was conducted by LuntzGlobal, the firm run by Republican 
     pollster Frank Luntz, and obtained by a liberal watchdog 
     group called the Center for Media and Democracy. (The slide 
     deck is here, and the full questionnaire is here.) Among the 
     most interesting findings: 80 percent of respondents said 
     they supported raising their state's minimum wage, while only 
     eight percent opposed it.
       ``That's where it's undeniable that they support the 
     increase,'' LuntzGlobal managing director David Merritt told 
     state chamber executives in a webinar describing the results, 
     noting that it squares with other polling they've done. ``And 
     this is universal. If you're fighting against a minimum wage 
     increase, you're fighting an uphill battle, because most 
     Americans, even most Republicans, are okay with raising the 
     minimum wage.''
       Merritt then provided some tips on how to defuse that 
     support, such as suggesting other poverty-reduction methods 
     like the Earned Income Tax Credit. ``Where you might find 
     some comfort if you are opposing it in your state is, `how 
     big of a priority is it against other priorities?''' he said. 
     ``Most folks think there are bigger priorities. Creating more 
     jobs rather than raising the minimum wage is a priority that 
     most everyone agrees with. So when you put it up against 
     other issues, you can find other alternatives and other 
     things to focus on. But in isolation, and you ask about the 
     minimum wage, it's definitely a winner.''
       Sixty-three percent of respondents said they belong to a 
     chamber of commerce, whether on the local, state, or federal 
     level--suggesting that the groups' public statements might be 
     out of step with their members' beliefs. The materials shed 
     light on how some business trade associations operate, and 
     why they've continued to oppose minimum wage increases even 
     as the rest of the public thaws towards them.
       The research had been commissioned by the Council of State 
     Chambers, a small, non-political umbrella organization that 
     coordinates messaging across the dozens of groups that make 
     up its membership. The main purpose of the survey, says 
     Council director Joe Crosby, had been to assess what the 
     broader business community thinks about state chambers, and 
     what kind of language they respond to best. (Under the terms 
     of its contract, Crosby says, LuntzGlobal was forbidden from 
     discussing the survey publicly.)
       So why do state chambers, which are usually the largest and 
     most powerful business organizations represented in state 
     capitols, seem so far apart from the broader business 
     community when it comes to the minimum wage?
       Crosby argued that modest minimum wage hikes don't impact 
     the majority of chamber members, and so they actually tend to 
     leave the issue to trade groups for retailers, hotels and 
     restaurants, which employ most low-wage workers.
       ``In chambers, historically, it's more successful 
     businesses that are in manufacturing and other higher wage 
     industries,'' Crosby says. ``They tend to see themselves as 
     the voice of business, but there are other groups that are 
     focused on sectors that are focused on different wage 
     mandates.''
       In the more liberal areas where minimum wage increases have 
     succeeded, that's often true: Broad-based business groups 
     have hesitated to speak out too strongly against the popular 
     measures, leaving those industries that are most affected out 
     in the cold.
       In some instances, advocates have even targeted low-wage 
     service industries first--a hotel wage ordinance passed in 
     Los Angeles before the across-the-board increase, for 
     example, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised wages for fast 
     food workers before launching a campaign to do so for all 
     workers (which New York City-based chambers of commerce 
     actually supported).
       But in most states, chambers of commerce haven't been as 
     shy in their opposition to minimum wage hikes. Pennsylvania 
     Chamber of Business and Industry president Gene Barr says he 
     canvasses his members regularly on lots of issues, and they 
     are against raising the state's minimum wage above where it 
     still sits at the federal floor of $7.25--even the big, high-
     tech industries that already pay well above it.
       ``Our larger businesses get that,'' said Barr, who sat 
     through the LuntzGlobal presentation. ``We don't get pushback 
     saying that `you really need to get behind a minimum wage 
     increase,' because they understand that it's really not 
     appropriate.''
       Minnesota Chamber of Commerce president Doug Loon says his 
     members' opinions don't match those of the LuntzGlobal 
     survey--including those regarding requirements that 
     businesses offer benefits like paid paternity leave, which 82 
     percent of respondents supported, or more paid sick leave, 
     which 73 percent supported. The Minnesota Chamber has found 
     that even those of its members who are offering those 
     benefits would rather have the choice of whether to do so, 
     and how.
       ``It's what most employers are moving to,'' Loon says. ``Do 
     we need to pass a one-size-

[[Page 5303]]

     fits-all on sick leave? We would argue that we do not.''
       So Loon and Barr say they're just following their members' 
     wishes. Some business groups have a different perspective--
     but don't necessarily have the power to combat a state 
     chamber when it puts its mind to something.
       The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce has 
     supported a higher minimum wage, but its president Frank 
     Knapp says his members simply don't have the bandwidth to 
     push for it, with so many other issues on their plate. ``When 
     you actually talk to those people one on one, you find that 
     yeah they're fine with raising the minimum wage,'' Knapp 
     says. ``But they're not going to crusade for the minimum 
     wage.''
       That might be true of traditional chamber members too, 
     Knapp thinks, many of whom mostly join for the networking 
     benefits rather than the political advocacy aspect anyway. 
     But within those groups, the industries that care most about 
     a given policy matter--hotels and restaurants, in the case of 
     the minimum wage--drive the organization's agenda. ``Usually 
     the most vocal members of the state chambers dominate on that 
     particular issue, and everybody else stays quiet,'' Knapp 
     says.
       When that happens, it's easy for politicians and the public 
     to get the idea that the private sector stands united against 
     raising the minimum wage, when opinions are actually much 
     more diverse.
       Holly Sklar is CEO of a national group called Business for 
     a Fair Minimum Wage that favors raising the wage floor in 
     states and nationwide, and she points to a number of surveys 
     by reputable pollsters--from CareerBuilder, Small Business 
     Majority, and the American Sustainable Business Council--that 
     found most businesses agree Many of those businesses don't 
     join state chambers, which means their opinions don't filter 
     up to the organization's leadership, so its positions don't 
     change--and that's what gets conveyed to politicians.
       ``Sometimes you end up confused by the fact that someone 
     has enough money to be in the halls of the state senate, day 
     after day after day, funded by some of the bigger 
     corporations that have more of an investment in the status 
     quo,'' Sklar says. ``It has an impact on how it's perceived--
     you start thinking that's what business thinks.''

  Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to listen to their 
constituents, listen to these businessowners, and raise the minimum 
wage. It is past time that we took this action to improve the lives of 
millions of working Americans and strengthen our economy.
  Mr. DeSAULNIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from California.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. 
DeLauro).
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague. I am proud to join 
with him this afternoon to talk about an issue of critical importance 
to the people of this Nation.
  Obviously, I want to be very, very clear about the issue of a rise in 
our minimum wage. For the length of time that I have served in this 
body, which is for 25 years, I have been a strong supporter of 
increasing the minimum wage. I believe that it has sustained America's 
working families and it is justified, which is why I strongly support 
the Raise the Wage Act.
  We need to index the minimum wage. It needs to keep up with 
inflation. It is long past time that this gets done. Time goes on, 
costs increase, and the minimum wage ought to increase. We can't afford 
to settle for the status quo.
  Full-time, year-round work at the current minimum wage of $7.25 
leaves a family of three below the Federal poverty line. This 
disproportionately, by the way, hurts women, who make up nearly two out 
of three workers making the minimum wage. This means low-wage workers 
have to work longer hours just to achieve the standard of living that 
was considered the bare minimum almost a half century ago.
  The greatest economic challenge that faces our Nation today is that 
too many Americans are in jobs that do not pay them enough to live on. 
Raising the minimum wage would directly or indirectly lift wages for 
more than 35 million workers--or more than one in four in the United 
States. The Raise the Wage Act would lift 4.5 million Americans out of 
poverty and reduce income inequality.
  The low minimum wage, by the way, is not just bad for workers. It is 
bad for business, and it is bad for the entire economy. Low wages limit 
consumer demand, which stalls our country's economic growth. That hurts 
everyone.
  A raise is long overdue for hardworking Americans if you realize, 
between 1948 and 1973, productivity and compensation grew at nearly 
equal rates; but from 1973 to 2014, American workers' productivity grew 
by 72 percent--they were producing more--while hourly worker 
compensation grew by just 9 percent.
  Wages for the top 1 percent have grown 138 percent since 1979, while 
wages for the bottom 90 percent have only grown 15 percent. We have an 
opportunity to make a real step toward closing this gap.
  There is a broad and growing consensus on a need to raise the wage. 
In a poll--and my colleagues have referenced this poll. This is a poll 
of business executives, and I think they were trying to hide it. I 
don't think that they wanted to get it out. But business executives--
and this is a poll conducted by Frank Luntz, who is a Republican 
pollster, and he found that 80 percent supported raising the Federal 
minimum wage.
  If our colleagues across the aisle want to make a real impact on 
poverty in the United States, they would support legislation that helps 
working families cope with rising costs like the Raise the Wage Act. 
The American people have waited long enough. It is time to make sure 
that all of our workers can make decent pay for a hard day's work, get 
a decent day's pay.
  I urge my colleagues to pass this legislation.
  Also, if I can, Mr. Speaker, Republicans contend that they can't 
raise the wage because doing so would kill jobs. So I include in the 
Record a paper from the National Employment Law Project describing, 
among other research, two meta-studies on the effect of the minimum 
wage on employment.

       Employment and Business Effects of Minimum Wage Increases


                              Introduction

       While the U.S. economy continues to see steady growth, 
     wages have been flat or falling for much of the labor force. 
     This dynamic has spurred the most significant wave of action 
     to raise the minimum wage in fifty years, with momentum for 
     significant increases at the federal, state and local levels. 
     The growing momentum for raising the minimum wage has focused 
     attention on the impact of higher minimum wages on employment 
     levels. Supporters argue that higher minimum wages help 
     workers and the economy, and that research shows any adverse 
     effect on jobs is minimal. Opponents, by contrast, generally 
     contend that higher wages will reduce employment or slow job 
     growth.
       The fact that many states and cities in the U.S. have 
     raised their minimum wages in recent years while others have 
     not has created a rich store of data for research and 
     analysis and has made the minimum wage one of the most 
     studied questions in economics.
       This brief reviews the extensive body of research on the 
     impact of higher minimum wages in the U.S. over the past 
     twenty years and draws these key findings:
       The bulk of rigorous research examining hundreds of case 
     studies of minimum wage increases at the state and local 
     levels finds that raising the minimum wage boosts incomes for 
     low-paid workers without reducing overall employment job 
     growth to any significant degree.
       The minority of researchers reaching different conclusions 
     rely on less precise or flawed methodologies that fail to 
     take advantage of the most recent advancements in economic 
     research.
       Businesses are able to absorb the cost of paying higher 
     wages without reducing employment through a range of 
     channels, including savings from increased employee 
     productivity and reductions in employee turnover that 
     consistently result from minimum wage increases.
       The minimum wage is one of the most studied subjects in the 
     field of economics. Since the early 1990s, economists--armed 
     with richer data than previously available and the 
     computational power to analyze it--have conducted scores of 
     studies in an effort to better understand the employment 
     effects of raising the minimum wage. Many of these studies, 
     often referred to as the ``new minimum wage research,'' have 
     used sophisticated methodologies that control for variables 
     unrelated to the minimum wage--such as regional employment 
     trends not driven by minimum wage changes--that otherwise may 
     bias a study's findings. The results overwhelmingly suggest 
     that raising the minimum wage has very little effect on 
     employment.
       Most prominently, two leading ``meta-studies'' survey and 
     pool the data from over four decades of research. The meta-
     studies represent the most reliable and sophisticated 
     approaches to studying the employment impact of raising the 
     minimum wage, as they

[[Page 5304]]

     aggregate data from dozens of studies containing thousands of 
     different estimates of the employment impacts of minimum wage 
     increases.
       The first meta-study, by Hristos Doucouliagos and T.D. 
     Stanley (2009), shows that there is ``little or no 
     significant impact of minimum wage increases on employment,'' 
     as noted by the Center for Economic and Policy Research in 
     its review of the minimum wage literature. This is 
     illustrated in Figure 1, which arrays 1,492 different 
     findings from 64 different studies, mapping their conclusions 
     on employment impacts against the statistical precision of 
     the findings. As economist Jared Bernstein summarizes, ``the 
     strong clumping around zero [impact on jobs] provides a 
     useful summary of decades of research on this question [of 
     whether minimum wage increases cost jobs].
       Drawing on the methodological insights of Doucouliagos and 
     Stanley, the second meta-study by Dale Belman and Paul 
     Wolfson (2014) reviews more than 70 studies and 439 distinct 
     estimates to come to a very similar conclusion: ``[i]t 
     appears that if negative effects on employment are present, 
     they are too small to be statistically detectable. Such 
     effects would be too modest to have meaningful consequences 
     in the dynamically changing labor markets of the United 
     States,'' and too small to merit policy or political 
     controversy.
       In addition to these meta-studies, state-of-the-art 
     individual studies have developed new research methods to 
     enable economists to better isolate and analyze the actual 
     impact of minimum wage increases--and have confirmed that 
     raising the minimum wage does not reduce employment. Two of 
     these leading individual studies are:
       ``Minimum Wage Effects Across State Borders,'' in which 
     economists Arindrajit Dube, T. William Lester and Michael 
     Reich (2010) apply innovative new research methods to examine 
     the real-world impact of state minimum wage increases on 
     employment. In order to completely isolate other factors 
     influencing state job growth trends, the study compares 
     employment trends in neighboring counties that are 
     economically similar except for having different minimum 
     wages (by virtue of being on different sides of a state 
     border). The study looks at employment levels among every 
     pair of neighboring U.S. counties that had differing minimum 
     wage levels at any time between 1990 and 2006--and finds that 
     higher minimum wages did not lead business in those states to 
     reduce their hiring or shift their hiring to neighboring 
     counties with lower minimum wage rates.
       ``Do Minimum Wages Really Reduce Teen Employment?,'' in 
     which economists Sylvia Allegretto, Arindrajit Dube and 
     Michael Reich (2011) demonstrate that neglecting to control 
     for regional employment trends leads observers to erroneously 
     attribute reductions in employment in certain states to an 
     increase in the minimum wage. They find that, after 
     controlling for regional trends, the negative effects on teen 
     employment in regions with higher minimum wages not only 
     disappeared, but turned slightly positive, and that these 
     observations hold true whether the economy is growing or in a 
     downturn. The fact that there is no evidence that past U.S. 
     minimum wage increases have reduced teen employment is 
     significant since, if there were any adverse effects 
     associated with minimum wage increases, one might expect to 
     see them among teens who are new entrants to the labor 
     market.
       The innovative approach used by Dube, Lester and Reich in 
     the 2010 study has won praise from leading labor economists 
     at top universities, such as Harvard economist Lawrence Katz 
     and Massachusetts Institute of Technology economists David 
     Autor and Michael Greenstone. As Autor explained, ``The paper 
     presents a fairly irrefutable case that state minimum wage 
     laws do raise earnings in low wage jobs but do not reduce 
     employment to any meaningful degree. Beyond this substantive 
     contribution, the paper presents careful and compelling 
     reanalysis of earlier work in this literature, showing that 
     it appears biased by spatial correlation in employment 
     trends.''
       The new body of research has led to a shift in the views of 
     mainstream economists on the employment impact of minimum 
     wage increases. Indicative is a February 2013 poll of leading 
     economists by the University of Chicago's Booth School of 
     Business, in which economists by a more than 3 to 1 margin 
     believe that the benefits of raising the minimum wage and 
     indexing it for inflation outweigh any costs. Similarly, 
     centrist economists, including Larry Summers and Robert 
     Rubin, have called for raising the minimum wage and 
     empowering workers as part of a strategy to help grow the 
     middle class and move the economy forward; and Goldman Sachs 
     released an analysis of minimum wage increases, which did not 
     mention disemployment at all--neither as an immediate effect, 
     nor as a forecast.
       The shrinking body of economic research that continues to 
     argue that increases in the minimum wage cost jobs emanates 
     in large part from a single source: University of California-
     Irvine economist David Neumark. Neumark is the author of both 
     a survey that claims that the weight of minimum wage research 
     points towards evidence of job losses, and of several studies 
     that claim to show the same. However, both Neumark's survey 
     and the methodology he uses in his individual studies have 
     been shown to be skewed and inaccurate.
       Neumark's 2006 survey (coauthored with William Wascher), 
     ``Minimum Wages and Employment: A Review of Evidence from the 
     New Minimum Wage Research,'' maintains that 85 percent of the 
     ``most credible'' research on the impact of raising the 
     minimum wage finds job losses as a result. However, other 
     economists have pointed out that this survey--which is not a 
     true meta-study--was conducted in a highly subjective manner, 
     generating its unrepresentative conclusions. Specifically, 
     Neumark's survey:
       1. Fails to comprehensively review the economic research on 
     the impact of raising the minimum wage, and instead selects 
     just 33 studies that the author subjectively designates as 
     the ``most credible;''
       2. Omits several of the most important recent studies on 
     the impact of minimum wage increases in the United States, 
     with the result that half of the studies analyzed by Neumark 
     focus on foreign labor markets, rendering their conclusions 
     less relevant to the U.S.; and
       3. Is skewed towards Neumark's own research, which makes up 
     a full 26 percent of the U.S.-based studies that he elects to 
     include.
       Neumark's research, as well as the few other studies which 
     continue to maintain that minimum wage increases cost jobs, 
     have used variants on a single approach: comparing job growth 
     in states with higher minimum wages against job growth in 
     states with lower minimum wages.
       However, as demonstrated by Dube, Lester and Reich (2010) 
     and Allegretto, Dube and Reich (2011), Neumark's simplistic 
     approach cannot accurately assess the impact of a higher 
     minimum wage since It does not adequately control for the 
     wide range of varying local economic conditions--such as 
     regional trends in manufacturing jobs losses, population 
     shifts to the sun belt, and the local severity of economic 
     shocks such as the housing bubble collapse--that affect job 
     growth in state labor markets. As a result of these 
     inadequate controls, Neumark and other conservative 
     economists erroneously attribute differences in regional job 
     growth levels to minimum wage differences.
       More recent and sophisticated research does a better job of 
     controlling for those regional economic differences. The 2010 
     study by Dube, Lester and Reich, for example, uses a 
     methodology similar to Neumark's. But rather than comparing 
     job growth rates among all states nationwide, it focuses on 
     comparisons among states in the same region of the country 
     that have differing minimum wages. Dube, Lester and Reich 
     show that when one uses a regional focus to control for 
     extraneous economic trends, any evidence of job losses 
     disappear.
       The strength of the new research has led major business 
     publications to endorse its findings and methodologies--and 
     to reject opposition research as faulty and inaccurate. In 
     2012, Bloomberg News, for example, called for increasing the 
     minimum wage and indexing it for inflation, writing that, 
     ``[a] wave of new economic research is disproving those 
     arguments about job losses and youth employment. Previous 
     studies tended not to control for regional economic trends 
     that were already affecting employment levels, such as a 
     manufacturing-dependent state that was shedding jobs. The new 
     research looks at micro-level employment patterns for a more 
     accurate employment picture. The studies find minimum-wage 
     increases even provide an economic boost, albeit a small one, 
     as strapped workers immediately spend their raises.''
       Despite the advances made in new research on the minimum 
     wage, in 2014 the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published 
     a report, based partially on older research, suggesting that 
     an increase in the minimum wage would reduce total U.S. 
     employment by about 500,000 workers--though it acknowledged 
     the possibility of an impact ranging from near-zero to one 
     million jobs lost. Economists who have studied the minimum 
     wage, however, have criticized the report for a major flaw in 
     its analysis: Despite acknowledging the greater accuracy of 
     newer methodologies, in its synthesis of minimum wage studies 
     the CBO gave equal weight to older methodologies as to new, 
     without explaining its reason for doing so.
       Michael Reich--one of the critics of the report and 
     coauthor of two of the studies discussed above--notes the CBO 
     erred when it took the findings of research by Neumark/ 
     Wascher and Reich/Dube and averaged them, as if those studies 
     were similar enough in methodology, time and data sets used 
     to justify doing so. He writes, ``We conclude, and many other 
     labor economists agree, that our studies invalidate the 
     previous approach used in many studies by Neumark and Wascher 
     and others. It makes no sense to take an average between a 
     rigorous study and one that has been shown to be flawed.'' 
     Giving equal weight to these studies likely biased the CBO's 
     conclusions.
       Goldman Sachs analysts also reviewed the CBO report and 
     concluded that its job loss estimates are overstated. The 
     analysts cite the findings of the new minimum wage research, 
     which find little to no effects on employment (see the first 
     section of this brief);

[[Page 5305]]

     a boost in demand from higher earnings; a concentration of 
     employment impacts on only two industries (retail and leisure 
     & hospitality); and the fact that states and localities have 
     taken the lead in increasing the minimum wage in the face of 
     congressional inaction, as reasons the CBO estimates are 
     likely too high.
       Even with its flawed analysis, taken as a whole the CBO 
     report nonetheless demonstrates that the benefits of raising 
     the minimum wage far outweigh any drawbacks. Among its 
     positive findings, the report concluded that 24.5 million 
     workers would benefit from a wage increase to $10.10, and 
     nearly one million would be lifted out of poverty.
       In January 2014, House of Representatives Speaker John 
     Boehner made the following claim in explaining his opposition 
     to raising the minimum wage: ``When you raise the cost of 
     something, you get less of it.'' This idea seems intuitive to 
     many who learned about supply and demand in an introductory 
     economics class. But in fact, both research and real life 
     experiences show that, rather than automatically raising 
     costs and forcing layoffs, higher wages can lead to 
     significant savings for businesses, offsetting a large 
     portion of the higher payroll costs. Among the leading 
     factors explaining this seemingly counter-intuitive 
     observation are two related concepts: employee turnover and 
     productivity.
       Low wages are associated with high levels of employee 
     turnover. Workers earning low wages tend to be less committed 
     to their jobs than better paid workers and are less likely to 
     stay at their jobs for long. Unsurprisingly, the 
     accommodations and food services sector--one of the lowest-
     paying sectors--has an annual turnover rate of nearly 63 
     percent, while ``limited service restaurants''--a subsector 
     which includes fast food restaurants like McDonald's and 
     Burger King--have a turnover rate of well over 100 percent 
     each year. The retail trade, which employs cashiers, customer 
     service representatives, stock clerks and other low-wage 
     workers, has a turnover rate of nearly 50 percent.
       Employee turnover forces businesses to constantly find and 
     train new workers, costing firms significant amounts of money 
     and time. In the fast food industry, the cost of turnover is 
     approximately $4,700 each time a worker leaves his or her 
     job. Studies show that higher wages can substantially reduce 
     turnover and the costs associated with replacing lost 
     workers. In the fast food industry, increasing the minimum 
     wage could lead to as much as $5.2 billion in cost savings to 
     businesses and as many as 1.1 million fewer separations. 
     Overall, savings from reduced turnover alone can offset as 
     much as 30 percent of the cost of a minimum wage increase--
     even to $15 per hour.
       Low pay also impacts productivity. While experienced 
     workers tend to be more productive, new workers may not be as 
     optimally efficient during their training period, and this 
     can incur indirect costs to businesses from lost sales and 
     imperfect customer service as new workers learn on the job. 
     While the savings from greater productivity and lower 
     turnover may not fully pay for a minimum wage increase, these 
     savings can nonetheless substantially offset the higher labor 
     costs associated with an increase.
       The benefits from higher productivity and lower turnover 
     helps explain why large companies as well as many small 
     businesses have chosen to invest in higher wages as part of a 
     highly competitive business strategy. As MIT business school 
     professor Zeynep Ton explains, ``Highly successful retail 
     chains--such as QuikTrip convenience stores, Mercadona and 
     Trader Joe's supermarkets, and Costco wholesale clubs--not 
     only invest heavily in store employees but also have the 
     lowest prices in their industries, solid financial 
     performance, and better customer service than their 
     competitors. They have demonstrated that, even in the lowest-
     price segment of retail, bad jobs are not a cost-driven 
     necessity but a choice. And they have proven that the key to 
     breaking the trade-off is a combination of investment in the 
     workforce and operational practices that benefit employees, 
     customers, and the company.''
       Many employers can afford to pay better wages. The vast 
     majority of small businesses (89 percent) already pay their 
     employees more than the federal minimum wage, a strong 
     majority (60 percent) support raising the minimum wage to $12 
     and adjusting it for inflation each year, and a growing 
     number of employers see $15 as a fair minimum wage. Many also 
     believe that higher wages level the playing field by 
     preventing larger or less scrupulous firms from gaining a 
     competitive advantage through very low labor costs. Large 
     businesses, in particular, are in the position to improve 
     their wages. Corporations like Walmart, T.J. Maxx, Gap and 
     Ikea, which employ the majority of low-wage workers, have 
     been enjoying record profits for years. According to the St. 
     Louis Federal Reserve Bank, in the second quarter of 2015, 
     corporate profits amounted to $1.8 trillion--the highest 
     since the late 1940s.


                               Conclusion

       ``When employers stop thinking about employees as costs to 
     cut, but instead as customers, they see it is in their self-
     interest to raise the minimum wage. We need to change their 
     concept of self-interest.''--Nick Hanauer, entrepreneur and 
     venture capitalist.
       The most recent and sophisticated research--as well as the 
     experiences of leading employers like Trader Joe's, Costco 
     and thousands of small businesses--strongly suggest that 
     higher wages increase incomes for low-wage workers without 
     reducing overall employment or hurting businesses. Not only 
     do employers benefit from the savings they accrue from lower 
     turnover and higher productivity; they also benefit from an 
     increase in demand for the goods and services they offer. As 
     observers from Nick Hanauer to Larry Summers point out, 
     workers are customers--and the better a worker's ability to 
     participate in the economy as a consumer, the better off will 
     be both individual businesses and the economy as a whole.

  Ms. DeLAURO. This document examined 64 minimum wage studies measuring 
the effect of minimum wages on teenage employment in the United States 
published between 1972 and 2007. While these studies estimated a range 
of employment effects, Mr. Stanley and Mr. Doucouliagos found the most 
precise estimates in the studies were around zero or near zero 
employment effects.

                              {time}  1600

  The second is from Paul Wolfson and Dale Belman. It examined studies 
published since 2007 on the employment effect on minimum wage 
increases. This meta-analysis also found that the best estimates in the 
compiled studies revealed no statistically significant negative 
employment effects.
  We all have listened over many years that any increase in the minimum 
wage would, my gosh, send the U.S. economy into a tailspin, and every 
time it has proven false. It was false then; it is false now. Let us 
raise the minimum wage, and let us support the Raise the Wage Act.
  I thank my colleague from California for including me in this Special 
Order.
  Mr. DeSAULNIER. My pleasure. I thank my colleague from Connecticut 
for her passionate advocacy on this issue and on others around wage 
inequality.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter sent to President Obama 
and signed by over 600 economists, including seven Nobel Prize winners, 
stating that the most recent economic research shows that increases in 
the minimum wage have little or no negative effect on the employment of 
minimum wage workers. In fact, the letter goes on to read that a 
minimum wage increase could have a stimulative effect on the economy as 
low-wage workers spend their additional earnings, thus increasing 
consumer demand and leading companies to hire additional workers.

  Over 600 Economists Sign Letter In Support of $10.10 Minimum Wage: 
            Economist Statement on the Federal Minimum Wage

       Dear Mr. President, Speaker Boehner, Majority Leader Reid, 
     Congressman Cantor, Senator McConnell, and Congresswoman 
     Pelosi: July will mark five years since the federal minimum 
     wage was last raised. We urge you to act now and enact a 
     three-step raise of 95 cents a year for three years--which 
     would mean a minimum wage of $10.10 by 2016--and then index 
     it to protect against inflation. Senator Tom Harkin and 
     Representative George Miller have introduced legislation to 
     accomplish this. The increase to $10.10 would mean that 
     minimum-wage workers who work full time, full year would see 
     a raise from their current salary of roughly $15,000 to 
     roughly $21,000. These proposals also usefully raise the 
     tipped minimum wage to 70% of the regular minimum.
       This policy would directly provide higher wages for close 
     to 17 million workers by 2016. Furthermore, another 11 
     million workers whose wages are just above the new minimum 
     would likely see a wage increase through ``spillover'' 
     effects, as employers adjust their internal wage ladders. The 
     vast majority of employees who would benefit are adults in 
     working families, disproportionately women, who work at least 
     20 hours a week and depend on these earnings to make ends 
     meet. At a time when persistent high unemployment is putting 
     enormous downward pressure on wages, such a minimum-wage 
     increase would provide a much-needed boost to the earnings of 
     low-wage workers.
       In recent years there have been important developments in 
     the academic literature on the effect of increases in the 
     minimum wage on employment, with the weight of evidence now 
     showing that increases in the minimum wage have had little or 
     no negative effect on the employment of minimum-wage workers, 
     even during times of weakness in the labor market. Research 
     suggests that a minimum-wage increase could have a small 
     stimulative effect on the economy as low-wage workers

[[Page 5306]]

     spend their additional earnings, raising demand and job 
     growth, and providing some help on the jobs front.

  Mr. DeSAULNIER. Mr. Speaker, I stand here as a fervent believer in 
what we have advocated for and as someone who has spent 35 years owning 
and managing restaurants in an area of the country in which the economy 
is growing more rapidly than anywhere else in the country right now, 
which is the San Francisco Bay Area.
  With that background, I also speak to this as somebody who has a good 
deal of empathy for small-business owners, particularly restaurant 
owners, who are looking at monthly and quarterly business reports and 
are wondering how they would accommodate the increase in the minimum 
wage. In California, of course, we are much higher than in the U.S., 
and many cities, including San Francisco, have gone to $15 with an 
indexed minimum wage.
  I believe firmly in the research that shows that one of the biggest 
challenges to small businesses, particularly in the restaurant field, 
is not the challenge of minimum wage workers, but the fact that there 
is less disposable income in middle-income households to be able to 
have the discretion to go out and spend that disposable income in 
restaurants and on hospitality events. While I understand the angst, 
these are the kinds of things, once we take that step--from my 
experience and the experience in California and in high-cost areas like 
New York and San Francisco, which have gone ahead with raising the 
minimum wage--that would indicate the overall benefit to the economy 
and to everyone.
  Lastly, I think the challenge of this time for us domestically is, as 
I said, the inequality in the country. In a country in which the 
economy is based on 70 percent consumer investments, having more 
disposable income is a good thing. As President Lincoln once famously 
said: In order for this democracy to thrive, there must always be a 
balance between capital and labor; and if there is ever an imbalance 
towards capital, we have, in effect, lost democracy.
  There is no question that, at this point in time, capital investment 
is doing many great things, including in the bay area and in our 
venture capital community and in our innovation community. In having 
said that, one does not have to read Thomas Piketty to understand that 
we have a huge imbalance between wages and labor and capital, which 
Lincoln warned about.
  I ask the majority party to work with us to raise the minimum wage in 
order to help the economy.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 
hard work and dedication of workers in our district in Houston and 
Harris County, Texas who deserve a living wage, and I call on Congress 
to vote on raising the minimum wage.
  There are over 10 million Americans working full time today who earn 
below the poverty line--under $24,000 a year for a family of four.
  In my home state of Texas, over 450,000 people are paid the minimum 
wage, more than any other state.
  African-Americans and Hispanics are the most likely in our country to 
be among the working poor. Nearly 1-in-7 black and Hispanic Americans 
work full-time and live below the poverty line.
  Eight percent of all working women in our country, 5.5 million 
Americans, are among the working poor.
  Mr. Speaker, this is simply not right. Our country must value hard 
work and pay our workers a living wage if we are going to compete in 
the 21st century.
  I am a proud original cosponsor of the Raise the Wage Act. This bill 
would raise the minimum wage nationwide to $12 an hour by 2020, and 
index the minimum wage to inflation afterwards, giving 35 million 
Americans--more than one in four--a raise.
  Increasing the minimum wage would raise earnings by nearly $80 
billion and grow our economy when millions of Americans can finally 
afford to buy a new television, automobile, or home.
  This bill would end the unfair treatment of tipped workers by giving 
waiters and waitresses the same minimum wage as other workers.
  America is a hardworking and compassionate country. We can no longer 
stand by while millions of our neighbors continue to live in poverty 
despite their great efforts.
  I urge my colleagues to stand with the American people and demand a 
vote to raise the minimum wage.

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