Victor Fazio: “America needs a raise. And it's about time--in the 5 years since the last minimum wage increase, its purchasing power…”

“America needs a raise. And it's about time--in the 5 years since the last minimum wage increase, its purchasing power has sunk to a 40 year low. But rather than schedule a straight up or down vote on a minimum wage increase, the Republican leadership has loaded down this bill with provisions which renew their attacks on working families. This bill would include a lower required wage for tipped restaurant workers, an overtime exemption for computer workers, and a subminimum training wage for new hires. Our Republican colleagues just don't seem to get it. They don't seem to understand that a 90-cent increase in the minimum wage means 7 months of groceries, a year of health care costs, 9 months of utility bills, or 4 months of housing. This is another example of how the other party has lost touch with what most Americans are thinking about the minimum wage. Over 80 percent of Americans not only believe in the minimum wage, but think that it should be raised. My colleagues, this proposal is one more example of the do-nothing GOP Congress creating more legislative gridlock. Let's not bury the minimum wage increase in a tangle of legislative language which would result in denying minimum wage protections to millions of working men and women. Let's honor America's working families by increasing the minimum wage. Vote ``no'' on the Goodling amendment and ``yes'' on a clean minimum wage increase.”