[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 10 (Monday, March 13, 2000)]
[Pages 485-487]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Minimum Wage Legislation

March 8, 2000

    The President. Wasn't she great? I don't think the rest of us need 
to say much. [Laughter] I want to thank Senator Kennedy and Congressman 
Gephardt, Congressman Bonior, and all the Members of the House who are 
here with us today. I want to thank the members of the administration 
who are here, in addition to Mr. Podesta: Treasury Secretary Larry 
Summers, Gene Sperling, Deputy Labor Secretary Ed Montgomery. I thank 
the religious leaders who are here, including Reverend Paul Sherry, the 
former president of the United Church of Christ; the Reverend David 
Beckmann, the president of Bread for the World; and the other community 
leaders.
    But most important of all, I want to thank Cheryl Costas for being 
here, because we're here today on behalf of her and so many people like 
her all across our country. People who work for the minimum wage often 
don't get a chance to see the White House. They don't have time to come, 
even for the public tours. They work hard every day. They stock our 
store shelves, wash dishes at our restaurants, clean our offices at 
night, care for our kids during the day. They're in every town and every 
city in our country. They're of every racial and ethnic and religious 
group. They have in common the minimum wage. And they need a raise, and 
as you saw, they deserve a raise.
    We are here today to ask Congress to give it to them. Ever since I 
ran for President

[[Page 486]]

in 1992, I've had a vision of making our Nation a place where everyone--
everyone--responsible enough to work for it could have a share of the 
American dream. Over the last 7 years, with the help of a lot of you 
here today, we've made a lot of headway toward that goal, turning the 
economy around and continuing the longest economic expansion in our 
history. I want to continue doing that.
    I want us not to squander the surplus but to save Social Security 
and Medicare, to invest in education, and to pay our debt down. I also 
have tried very hard not just to generate jobs but to help people who 
are working hard for less. That's why we expanded the earned-income tax 
credit, and I've asked Congress to expand it again. That's why we passed 
the family and medical leave law, and I've asked Congress to expand it 
again. And that's why, with bipartisan support in 1996, we raised the 
minimum wage to $5.15 an hour, over 2 years. And now it's time to do it 
again, to $6.15 an hour.
    We have bipartisan support again in Congress, but once again, the 
Republican leadership is trying to stop us. They know they can't win on 
the facts. Back in 1996--listen to what was said the last time we tried 
to raise the minimum wage. In 1996, Republican leaders said that a 
higher minimum wage, and I quote, ``was a job killer cloaked in 
kindness.'' They warned that it would throw young minorities out of work 
and lead to--listen to this--a juvenile crime wave of epic 
proportions.
    Time has not been kind to their predictions. [Laughter] Today I 
release a report from the National Economic Council that puts to rest 
any of the lingering myths about the minimum wage. Since the minimum 
wage was raised in 1996, our economy has created over 10 million new 
jobs. The unemployment rate is at its lowest point in 30 years. The 
employment of minority youth has gone up. Juvenile crime has gone down. 
We now have the lowest poverty rates in 20 years and the lowest African-
American and Hispanic unemployment rates ever recorded. We've cut the 
welfare rolls in half. And, thanks in part to the minimum wage increase, 
millions have moved from welfare to work and incomes for even the 
poorest Americans are rising for the first time in decades.
    Now, that's what happened the last time we raised the minimum wage. 
There are no facts on which to base this opposition anymore. The new 
report I release today also dispels another myth about the minimum wage, 
that those who benefit are mostly middle class teenagers working for gas 
money. Cheryl probably feels a lot like me--I wish I were still a middle 
class teenager working for gas money. [Laughter]
    But the fact is that 70 percent of the people on the minimum wage 
are adults; 60 percent are women; and almost half work full-time. Many 
are the sole breadwinners, struggling to raise their children on $10,700 
a year. And I think Congress ought to think about them when this vote 
comes up.
    Today, there are more than 10 million Americans like Cheryl working 
for $5.15 an hour. You heard her say it's hard to live on that, 
especially if you have children. But no Americans who works full time 
should raise their children in poverty. This modest increase would 
simply restore the minimum wage to what it was in real dollar terms in 
1982. People who are against this should have to confront that fact.
    For a full-time worker, however, this would mean another $2,000 a 
year. And if you're on the minimum wage, that's real money, enough money 
for a family of four to buy groceries for 7 months or pay rent for 5 
months.
    This is the right thing to do for working families, the right thing 
to do for our economy, at a time when we've got labor shortages that 
will draw more people back into the labor market. Studies from Princeton 
to my own Council of Economic Advisers show that's exactly what happens 
when you raise the minimum wage: Increase the reward for work, and 
people who weren't looking for jobs decide to look and go to work.
    There are a dozen good reasons to raise the minimum wage and not a 
single good argument against it. Even the Republican leadership 
understands that. So instead of arguing the facts, they're playing 
legislative sleight of hand. For example, they're now using the minimum 
wage as a vehicle to repeal worker protections and pass irresponsible 
tax cuts that would threaten our fiscal discipline and jeopardize our 
ability to save

[[Page 487]]

Social Security and Medicare and pay the debt down by 2013.
    They also say they want to put this in over 3 years, not 2. That 
would mean $900 less in wages for a full-time minimum wage worker. If 
Republican leaders send me a bill that makes workers wait for another 
year for their full pay raise and holds the minimum wage hostage for 
risky tax cuts that threaten our prosperity, I'll veto it.
    It is time to stop nickel-and-diming the American working people out 
of the money that they need and deserve. This is just wrong. This is 
wrong. We have destroyed every single argument against raising the 
minimum wage. They're gone. All you've got now is legislative game 
playing; and it's wrong.
    I want a clean, straightforward bill to raise the minimum wage by a 
dollar over 2 years, and I intend to sign it.
    Let me say to all of you, I am profoundly grateful for the 
prosperity our Nation enjoys today, grateful for the opportunity that 
our administration has had to play a role in it. But I will never be 
satisfied as long as there are people like Cheryl out there. I mean, 
what else can you ask this woman to do? She's kept her family together. 
Her husband has a disability. She's supporting four kids. She's going to 
school full time. Now, how can Congress justify saying no to her?
    That's what I want to know. Let's play games on another bill. 
They're going to pass a lot of other bills. Can't we put the working 
people of this country first for a change here and put political games 
second?
    I'd like to now introduce to speak the first of a series of Members 
of Congress, without whom this fight could never be waged. And I am 
profoundly grateful to Representative David Bonior for nearly 25 years 
of fighting for people like Cheryl Costas.
    Congressman Bonior.

[At this point, Members of Congress made brief remarks.]

    The President. Ladies and gentlemen, all that needs to be said has 
been said. But what needs to be done has not been done. So I ask you to 
leave here remembering the stirring words of our leaders in Congress and 
the profoundly moving story of Cheryl Costas. And just remember, there's 
a lot more people like her out there. Remember what Dick Gephardt told 
you: Just ask every Member of Congress to imagine how long they could 
live on the minimum wage.
    This is the right thing to do. We're still here after over 220 years 
because when the chips are down, we mostly do the right thing, in spite 
of ourselves. Ask them to do the right thing.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:31 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Cheryl Costas, minimum wage 
earner, who introduced the President.