Chuck Grassley: “I want to address two aspects of this legislation because they are necessarily connected. One is, obviously, the…”

“I want to address two aspects of this legislation because they are necessarily connected. One is, obviously, the increase in the minimum wage. The other one is the small business tax provisions that have come out of the committee Senator Baucus chairs and on which I am the ranking member, the Finance Committee. I want to deal with the minimum wage part of this issue first. Popular support for raising the minimum wage is based on a number of widely held beliefs: First, that no one can support a family at $5.15 an hour; second, minimum wage earners will not get a pay raise unless Congress gives them one; and third, raising the minimum wage helps millions of poor workers and hurts no one. Unfortunately, these popular beliefs are in some cases misleading and in some cases outright wrong. First, minimum wage earners are not trying to support a family--or you might argue a small percentage of them are trying to support a family, but I want to say why most are not. Those who are, of course, can get additional benefits through Government programs to supplement family income; thus, no one has to rely solely on the minimum wage to support a family. Second, minimum wage jobs are generally entry level jobs. Most workers who start at the minimum wage quickly earn more. Few workers remain stuck at the minimum wage for very long and, unfortunately, those who do are most at risk of losing their jobs from a minimum wage increase.”