Mark Pocan: “I thank Mr. Scott for yielding. I do find it interesting to sit and listen to a debate today where people who make…”

“I thank Mr. Scott for yielding. I do find it interesting to sit and listen to a debate today where people who make $174,000 a year and half of which are millionaires are telling people they should be satisfied trying to exist on $15,000 a year, which is the very reason we are here today: to try to raise the wage for 33 million people, a quarter of the workforce in this country. No family in the United States can live on $7.25 an hour and make ends meet. In my home State of Wisconsin, you would have to work 93 hours a week at minimum wage in order to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment, and there is not a single county in the country where a worker earning the minimum wage for 40 hours a week can afford a two-bedroom apartment. I come to Congress with 3 decades as a small businessowner. Small business owners know our workers are our customers, our neighbors, and our community members. When workers have more money in their pockets, they have more money to spend to care for their families and stimulate our economy. This is especially true in rural areas, where workers have only a handful of employment options. If the primary employer in a rural town is a multibillion-dollar corporation like Walmart, they can afford to pay their workers $15 an hour instead of holding down wages for the entire community. Congress recently set a new record for the longest stretch in U.S. history without a hike in the minimum wage: 10 years.…”