    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [February 4, 1995]
    [Pages 161-163]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    February 4, 1995

        Good morning. This week marked the completion of 2 full years of
    economic reports during our administration. Since I took office 2 years
    ago, nearly 6 million new jobs have come into our economy. The
    unemployment rate has dropped more than 20 percent. Nineteen ninety-four
    was the best year for economic growth in 10 years in the United States.
    And the combined rates of unemployment and inflation are the lowest
    they've been in 25 years.
        Ninety-three percent of our new jobs are in the private sector.
    That's the highest percentage of private sector jobs created in any
    administration in 50 years and 8 times as many each month as were
    created during the 4 years before I took office. The majority of these
    jobs are in higher wage occupations. And while the economy lost 2
    million manufacturing jobs in the 12 years before I took office, we've
    gained back 300,000 of those manufacturing jobs in the 17

    [[Page 162]]

    months since our economic plan went into effect.
        I'm proud of this record. But I am very aware that far too many
    Americans have not benefited from this economic recovery. It used to be
    that a rising tide did lift all boats. From the end of World War II
    until the late 1970's, the incomes of all Americans rose steadily
    together. But since then, too many Americans are working harder and not
    getting ahead. Since 1979, the top 20 percent of our country has done
    quite well. But incomes from the rest of us have barely grown at all, or
    have actually dropped.
        Why has this happened? Pressures from the new global economy and the
    constant demand for new skills put a huge premium on education and
    training and make it harder and harder for people without the necessary
    skills to compete for rising incomes. This has had an impact on nearly
    every one of our families, making it harder to guarantee job security,
    harder to get a raise.
        That's why we push so hard to improve educational opportunities,
    including college loans for middle class people that are more affordable
    and easier to pay back. That's why I've proposed the middle class bill
    of rights which will increase income in the short and long runs by
    cutting taxes and promoting education and training, by giving a tax
    deduction for the cost of education after high school, by letting people
    withdraw tax-free from their IRA's for education costs, by making
    available to lower wage workers and unemployed people cash vouchers of
    up to $2,600 a year for more training.
        But even as we help Americans to gain the tools they need to compete
    and to raise their incomes, we have to reward their work by improving
    the wages of people who work full-time. I've worked hard to get higher
    paying jobs into our country through trade and increased investments and
    technology, but we have to do more. If we're really going to honor work,
    we have to show that anyone who takes responsibility and works full-time
    can support a family and can live in dignity.
        Those are the values at the heart of the New Covenant I've talked
    about for the last 3 years. Our job is to create opportunity for those
    who take responsibility to work hard and lift themselves up. Those are
    the values that have always sustained us and kept us a great nation.
        That's why we fought so hard for the earned-income tax credit in
    1993, a working family tax cut for 15 million families with incomes
    under $26,000. And that's why I now call on Congress to raise the
    minimum wage 90 cents, to $5.15 an hour, over the 2 years. In terms of
    real buying power, the minimum wage will be at a 40-year low next year
    if we don't increase it above where it is now at $4.25 an hour.
        As I told the Congress, already just this year, in one month of
    work, Members of Congress have earned more than full-time minimum wage
    workers earn all year long. Nobody can live on $4.25 an hour, and yet
    2.5 million Americans are working for just that amount, and many of them
    have children to feed. Millions more are just above the minimum wage.
        The only way to strengthen the middle class and shrink the under
    class is to ensure that hard work pays. Increasing the minimum wage is
    an important part of our strategy to do that. Congress is considering
    other economic strategies now as well. The test for all of these ideas
    should be: Do they reward work? Do they grow the middle class and shrink
    the under class? Do they build economic opportunity in America?
        I believe, for example, if we're really serious about welfare
    reform, increasing the minimum wage will plainly help. More than
    anything, I want to give a genuine bipartisan welfare reform effort the
    best chance it can to produce a bill that we can all be proud of, a bill
    that will encourage work and responsible parenting and independence. But
    welfare reform can't possibly succeed unless the people we expect to
    leave welfare and go to work are rewarded for their labors.
        In 1990 Congress raised the minimum wage, just as I propose to do,
    45 cents a year for 2 years. Then, overwhelming majorities in both
    Houses with majority support from both political parties did that.
        If in 1990 a Republican President and a Democratic Congress could
    get that job done, surely in 1995 a Republican Congress and a Democratic
    President can do the same, to uphold the value of hard work for the
    American people.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 1:30 p.m. on February 3 in the Oval
    Office at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on February 4.

    [[Page 163]]