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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: 202/219-8211.
Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich today said a minimum wage
increase would give a pay raise to thousands of low-paid people who deserve one
and he renewed his call for a debate on the issue with the second-ranking House
Republican.
Reich's comments came as he testified before the Joint
Economic Committee on President Clinton's proposal to raise the minimum wage
over the next two years from $4.25 to $5.15. It was the first hearing of the
104th Congress on the issue.
In addition, Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin endorsed
the minimum wage increase.
Reich explained that the people who need the increase are
"the invisible workers of America - working harder than they've ever worked
before and barely making it. Hoping they or their kids stay healthy, because
they can't afford to see a doctor."
"Hoping the rent doesn't go up again, because they can't
afford another place to live," he said. "Hoping that interest rates don't rise
again, because they're already behind on their car payments and their credit
card payments and they can't sink deeper into debt."
"These Americans do work that's often hard on muscles and
joints, the work that few relish but that needs to be done - janitors, maids,
child-care workers, cashiers, busboys, fast-food cooks, fork-lift operators,
assemblers, gas-station attendants," said Reich.
"They aren't on welfare, although sometimes they come
dangerously close. They don't need a capital gains tax cut, because they have
no capital. They simply work hard - very, very hard - and play by the rules,"
he explained.
Rubin, in a letter to leaders of the committee, said, "one
of the President's major goals is to 'make work pay' - to strengthen the
attachment of all Americans to the labor force and to the work ethic by
boosting the relative rewards of work. Raising the minimum wage would increase
the wages of between eleven and fourteen million workers."
Reich made a similar point, telling the committee that
"there are millions of hard-working Americans who will go to work today, as
they do every day, and will not earn enough to keep their families out of
poverty."
"Most of these workers are women, most of these workers
are adults, most of these workers earn the bulk of their families' income and
all of these workers deserve a raise," he told the panel.
Reich has been seeking to debate the issue with Rep.
Richard Armey of Texas, the House Majority Leader. Armey has said he will fight
any attempt to raise the minimum wage, but has not agreed to debate the
issue.
Reich, in his testimony, renewed his call for a debate
with Armey.
Reich also said, "work is better than welfare. Work
ennobles and gives meaning. Any American who works hard and plays by the rules
ought to have a fair chance to get ahead."
"The current minimum wage betrays those ideals," Reich
told the panel. "It's not a liveable wage. A person who works 40 hours per
week, 50 weeks per year at this wage earns only $8500 for an entire year's
work. That's just not enough to support a family. And to suggest it's good
enough mocks the values we claim to hold dear."
Both Reich and Rubin noted that inflation has eroded the
value of the minimum wage since it was last increased in 1991.
"Fully half of the increase would do nothing more than
reverse the inflation-induced deterioration in the real value of the minimum
wage since its last increase in 1991," Rubin wrote.
Reich agreed and said if the minimum wage figure is not
increased this year, "it will be worth less than at any time in 40 years."
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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