Sherrod Brown: “let's look at the kind of work the minimum wage workers are doing. They are hotel workers in Cincinnati. They are farm…”

“let's look at the kind of work the minimum wage workers are doing. They are hotel workers in Cincinnati. They are farm workers in western Ohio. They are people who are working every bit as hard, and many would argue much harder, at much more difficult jobs in many ways while, as Senator Kennedy said, we have made more in a week than they have made in 2 or 3 months. That is what makes for this Chamber's inability or unwillingness to pass this minimum wage increase more quickly--rather than continued delay, continued delay, continued delay, rather than having to do these tax breaks for some of their contributors, rather than do a straight up-or-down vote on whether we should increase the minimum wage for these workers who have worked hard and played by the rules. Don't they deserve a straight up-or-down vote? Let's pass the minimum wage. Let's give them a chance, to bring up the minimum wage, to make up for the decline in the real value of the minimum wage over the last 10 years. Again, as Senator Kennedy has said, 6 times in the last 10 years while the House and Senate have refused to increase the minimum wage, 6 different times, these 2 bodies increased our own pay. That is shameful. That is reprehensible, when I hear my friends in this body or in Government talk about family values. Let's talk about real family values.…”