[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 10 (Monday, March 13, 2000)]
[Page 483]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Letter to Congressional Leaders on Minimum Wage Legislation

March 7, 2000

Dear __________:

    I am writing this letter to strongly encourage Congress to pass 
clean, straightforward legislation to raise the minimum wage by $1--from 
$5.15 to $6.15--in two equal steps. Working families across this country 
deserve an increase that simply restores the real value of the minimum 
wage to what it was in 1982.
    Those who argue this modest pay raise would harm the economy could 
not be more wrong. Since 1996, when I worked with Congress to raise the 
minimum wage by 90 cents over 2 years, the unemployment rate has fallen 
from 5.2 percent to 4.1 percent--near the lowest level in 30 years, more 
than 10 million new jobs have been created, and economic growth has 
averaged 4.3 percent.
    Despite this overwhelming evidence, some in Congress are insisting 
on a lengthier 3-year increase in the minimum wage--a delay that would 
cost a full-time, year-round worker more than $900 over 2 years. Others 
have chosen to use the minimum wage increase as a vehicle to repeal 
important overtime protections for American workers. And finally, some 
are using this minimum wage increase to pass irresponsible tax cuts that 
would threaten our fiscal discipline and jeopardize our ability to 
extend the life of Medicare and Social Security and pay down the debt by 
2013.
    Let me be clear--this is the wrong approach. I will veto any 
legislation that holds this minimum wage increase hostage to provisions 
that delay this overdue pay raise or jeopardize our ability to 
strengthen Social Security and Medicare and pay down the debt by 2013 
for future generations.
    All Americans should be able to share in our current economic 
prosperity. For a full-time worker at the minimum wage, this increase 
would provide a $2,000 annual raise--enough for family of four to buy 
groceries for 7 months or pay rent for 5 months. More than 10 million 
workers would benefit from this proposal, the majority of them women. 
Congress should do the right thing and give these workers a raise.
    Sincerely,
                                            William J. Clinton

Note: Identical letters were sent to J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the 
House of Representatives; Richard A. Gephardt, House minority leader; 
Trent Lott, Senate majority leader; and Thomas A. Daschle, Senate 
minority leader. An original was not available for verification of the 
content of this letter.