Tom Harkin: “last March in the bankruptcy reform bill, the Senate debated the minimum wage with Senator Kennedy offering an amendment…”

“last March in the bankruptcy reform bill, the Senate debated the minimum wage with Senator Kennedy offering an amendment to increase the minimum wage over a 2-year period to $7.25. That amendment failed on a largely party-line vote, 46 to 49. Again, last October, another Kennedy amendment to increase the minimum wage over a 2-year period, to $6.25, again failed on a largely party-line vote, 47 to 48. Both votes ignored the fact that 37 million Americans, many holding down full-time jobs, are living in poverty. Here we are again. This week we again debate an amendment offered by Senator Kennedy, me, and many others, to increase the minimum wage. I hope this time the outcome will be different. Indeed, with 37 million Americans living in poverty, almost 13 percent of our population, we have to have a different outcome. We have to raise the minimum wage. Poverty is increasing sharply among the working poor. The new Census Bureau numbers show over the last year alone, the number of Americans who work but live in poverty increased by 563,000. The number of Americans who work but live in poverty increased by half a million. A job ought to lift people out of poverty not keep them in poverty. But that is what we have today--more and more Americans working, yet more and more Americans falling into poverty who are working. A job ought to lift you out of poverty.…”