On the recordApril 29, 2014
I rise to join my colleagues to urge support for increasing the Federal minimum wage. Today's minimum wage of $7.25 falls short and working families are falling behind. It hasn't kept up with the rising cost of everyday life. In fact, it is $2 less than it was in 1968, when adjusted for inflation. A full-time worker earning the minimum wage in 2014 makes less than someone did in 1968, almost half a century ago. Now, $7.25 may be just a number to some but not for so many families in my State struggling to get by. It means working two or three jobs just to put food on the table or fill the gas tank or buy clothes for their children and still not be able to climb out of poverty. Our Nation was founded on a basic premise that no matter who you are, if you work hard, you can get ahead. You can make a decent living. We haven't always kept that promise. We have the opportunity to do so this week for millions of hard-working men and women, young and old, who are paid the minimum wage. Working Americans are not moving forward. They are falling behind. Year after year, paycheck by paycheck, they work just as hard, but they earn less and less. This is a disturbing trend, not just for minimum wage workers but all across the board. Worker productivity is rising pretty dramatically--69 percent in the last 25 years--but real hourly wages are not keeping pace, up 26.5 percent in the last 25 years. For the top 1 percent it couldn't be better.…
