It is absurd that we think that these constituents and this scenario constitute fair wages.

Congress must continue with this legacy and update the FLSA to reflect current economic and employment realities.

We must address the issue of income inequality, and we must do it now.

We can no longer insist that people pull themselves up by their bootstraps when they make the poverty wages.

We cannot support efforts to strip workers of their overtime no matter what form it takes.

Please tell me and tell this body why the Fair Labor Standards Act is so important to millions of American workers, what has been its role in the past, and what it will mean for workers going forward.

In your testimony you outline some of the reasons why comp time for private employees is problematic.

The looming problem of income inequality threatens to gut our middle class, create a permanent under class, and dismantle the American dream of building economic wealth and financial stability.

We can no longer devalue the contributions our daughters, sisters, and wives make to our economy.

We can no longer pretend that workers who toil 60 or more hours a week and take home $23,660 a year are paid fair wages.

We can no longer justify depriving these workers of these basic protections while entrusting them to care for our aging parents and disabled family members.