Frank Pallone: “this weekend, we had more proof that middle- and low-income workers are still feeling the economic squeeze when it comes…”

“this weekend, we had more proof that middle- and low-income workers are still feeling the economic squeeze when it comes to making ends meet. Last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that hourly earnings of production workers, non-management workers ranging from nurses and teachers to assembly-line workers, fell 1.1 percent last month. That is the steepest decline since the recession of 1991, and makes up the lowest level of weekly pay since October 2001. While weekly pay is at its lowest levels in over a decade, middle- and lower-income workers are feeling the squeeze thanks to ever-increasing education, health care, and gas prices that are rising at rates much higher than the stagnant incomes. Let us consider a middle-class nurse in my State of New Jersey whose income fell 1.1 percent last month. How can this nurse afford the average $2,700 increase in health care premiums that New Jersey families face this year? How can this nurse and her family afford the $1,600 increase in college tuition costs? How can this nurse afford the more than $2,000 increase in child care costs? These increases would be difficult to keep up with if the nurse was actually receiving cost of living raises, however, it is impossible to meet with rising costs when you are actually seeing a cut in pay. There is no doubt it is becoming more and more difficult for these middle-class families to make ends meet.”