David Skaggs: “I rise in strong support of increasing the minimum wage for this Nation's working poor. The minimum wage law is designed…”

“I rise in strong support of increasing the minimum wage for this Nation's working poor. The minimum wage law is designed to help ensure working Americans earn enough to live on. Under the current minimum wage, a full-time worker earns $8,840 a year, well below the poverty level for a single-parent family of three. No person working full-time should have to live in poverty. The entire country benefits when we encourage self-sufficiency and reduce dependency on welfare. We want work to be more attractive than welfare--increasing the minimum wage helps accomplish that. And while the earned income tax credit would be another good way to help low-income workers, the Republican majority wants to cut the credit, not increase it. That is one reason it is so important that we raise the minimum wage. Despite the claims of the Republicans who oppose increasing the minimum wage, the minimum wage is not a wage only for teenagers who have part-time jobs and live with their parents. Of those earning minimum wage, 70 percent are adults 20 years old or older. Under the current minimum wage, these Americans are trying to support themselves on $4.25 per hour. An increase in the minimum wage is also a pay raise for women. Even though there are fewer women in the workforce than men as a percentage, 63 percent of those earning minimum wage are women.”