Tom Harkin: “I compliment Senator Kennedy on the statement he made regarding the minimum wage. I think Senator Kennedy has made it…”

“I compliment Senator Kennedy on the statement he made regarding the minimum wage. I think Senator Kennedy has made it quite clear that, rather than this being one of the throwaway issues that maybe we will address as we go through the year, increasing the minimum wage for the people of this country ought to be No. 1 on our agenda. We ought to be doing this right now. Yet here so many Americans are making the minimum wage which, I am sure was pointed out, is now less than the poverty level. It is about $4,000-some less--I think $4,500 below the poverty level for a family of three. It is unconscionable that over the last 7 years, the Congress--the Senate and the House together--has raised its own salaries, our salaries, by $21,000 a year. Yet a minimum wage in this country today is $10,500 a year, less than half of what we just increased our own salaries by over the last 7 years. These are working people; they are not on welfare. They are working.”