Political Quotes

“I rise to speak about the Minimum Wage Fairness Act, which I strongly support. The minimum wage, first instituted in 1938, has served as a key way to protect workers in our economy, ensuring they are able to earn enough money to provide basic living necessities. However, the current minimum wage set at $7.25 fails to do that. The Federal minimum wage has not been increased since 2009. Today an individual who works 40 hours per week, 52 weeks a year at the Federal minimum wage earns $15,080 per year. This is nearly $5,000 below the Federal poverty level for a family of three and almost $9,000 below the poverty level for a family of four. This means we have hard-working Americans who put in full-time work every week for the entire year yet still live in poverty. This is unacceptable. If we fail to act, the Federal poverty level will rise with inflation while the minimum wage will not. As a result, families earning $7.25 per hour will continue to fall further and further below the poverty line. The value of the minimum wage peaked in 1968, and it is now much lower due to inflation. If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation, it would currently pay $10.74 per hour. While the value of the minimum wage has been on the decline, worker productivity has been on the rise, and that is a disconnect. Increased productivity usually means there are increased wages that reflect that productivity, but that is not the case with the minimum wage.…”