George Miller: “today we are being offered a resolution in support of parents who stay at home with their children who are young. There…”

“today we are being offered a resolution in support of parents who stay at home with their children who are young. There is no dispute about the benefits a parent staying at home with his or her children can bring to that family, and on that basis alone this resolution should, and will, pass with a bipartisan majority. What is most notable and most troubling, however, are the issues not addressed in this resolution. First and foremost is the issue of wages. Too many Americans are not earning enough to support their families with just one income. Half of America's families with young children earn less than $35,000 per year. This includes families in which both parents work full time at the minimum wage and earn only $21,400. These are the families who have been left behind in the boom economy, families whose salaries have been flat-lined and benefits have been cut back while the stock market and the CEOs' salaries have skyrocketed. These are the families who are forced to send both parents into the work force, the many single parents who are forced to work more than one job. Temporary employment agencies report that most of our employees are second breadwinners in the family and that 75 percent of the people they employ are working because they have to.”