Political Quotes

“I rise in full support of raising the minimum wage. It has been over 5 years since working Americans have had a raise. Since April of 1991, the minimum wage has been fixed at $4.25. If left unchanged, the minimum wage will be at its lowest in more than 40 years in real inflation-adjusted terms. Nearly three-fourths of the workers affected by the increase are adults over the age of 20. Between 1981-88, President Reagan adamantly opposed an increase in the Federal minimum wage, the longest period of time for it to remain stagnant. It lost 25 percent of its purchasing power during that time. The purchasing power has dropped 15% since the last increase in 1991. Adjusted for inflation, that is nearly 50 cents. The average minimum wage worker must work 3 rac{1}{2} days more in order to pay rent than in 1981, now totalling 17 days. The average minimum wage worker has to work more than full time, 15 hours more, to stay out of poverty. Forty percent of minimum wage earners are sole breadwinners. Minimum wage workers' earnings account for almost half, 45 percent, of a families total earnings. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that the minimum wage increase could lift 300,000 families out of poverty, including 100,000 children living in poverty. At $4.25 an hour, a full-time employee working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year earns $8,840. Fifty-nine percent of all minimum wage workers are women. Many of these women are single parents.”