Political Quotes

“Mr. President, too many Americans are still struggling in today's economy. Despite comments by some candidates for President, Americans work hard but still have trouble getting by. We know that Americans on average are working longer hours than workers in almost every other rich country in the world--significantly longer hours. Simply, they are not getting the pay they have earned and the compensation and the lifestyle to which they aspire and have worked so hard toward. For many workers, it feels as though the harder and longer they work, the less they have to show for it. And they are not imagining things. Since the 1970s, middle class wages have been stagnant while the number of hours spent on the job has gone up. In short, Americans are working more for less. The middle class has shrunk in every State in this country. The Pew Research Center studies show that the share of adults in middle-income households has fallen from 61 percent in 1970 to 51 percent in 2013. In Ohio the share of families that are middle class is now below 50 percent. We need to do more to build on-ramps for middle-class hard- working Americans instead of saying that Americans are not working hard enough, instead of asking workers to do more and more for less money. It is not uncommon today for salaried workers--salaried workers, not millionaire salaried workers but lower income and middle-income salaried workers--to work 50-, 60-, 70-hour weeks without getting a cent in overtime.…”