Labor

The Republican vision for the future is a safer, healthier and more prosperous America.

The Republican-led Congress is making real headway in securing America's homeland, securing America's prosperity and securing America's values.

In the Senate this year, we've passed legislation to prevent a $70 billion tax increase on the American people and continue record economic growth, improve health care quality through electronic medical records, secure our homeland by strengthening our borders, expand the energy supply through new exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and fund the War on Terror.

As the legislative session winds down, much is left to be done. This week presents another opportunity for senators to join together in addressing the pressing needs of the American people. We must pass a strong, fiscally responsible Defense appropriations bill that funds our military and supports our troops serving overseas. We must past legislation reforming our nation's pension system and providing retirement security for millions of Americans. And we must pass legislation that includes a permanent solution for the Death Tax, an extension of valuable tax incentives, and an increase in the federal minimum wage. Combining these measures offers a timely and effective way to address issues important to both sides of the aisle.

I ask my colleagues to put politics aside and pass these three bills making our country safer and improving the lives of millions of Americans.

Senate Republicans must do what House Republicans didn't - stop playing games with the minimum wage and get serious about providing a fair pay increase for the 6.6 million hardworking Americans and their families who would benefit from a raise in the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25. House Republicans' cynical political ploy won't fool the American people, and shouldn't be replicated in the Senate.

The Senate may vote this week on a House Republican bill that would immediately cut the minimum wage for some groups of workers and gradually raise the minimum wage for other groups of workers. The bill would also give an average $1.4 million tax break to the wealthiest 8,200 estates in the country, driving up the federal budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. In short, the bill is a sham.

It is not surprising that Republican leaders in Congress larded up a minimum wage increase with a wage cut and massive tax breaks. But it is shameful. It means that while some groups of low-wage workers would get a wage increase, hundreds of thousands of workers in Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Guam would see a decrease in their wages.

A true national minimum wage increase must raise the wages of all workers across the board, plain and simple. But House Republicans still refuse to allow a clean vote to increase the minimum wage. This bill's harmful provisions prove once again just how deceptive and cynical Republican leaders are willing to be just to score political points.

The Senate must reject this deceptive legislation. Americans deserve a Congress that will pass an honest national minimum wage increase that benefits all working families. Democrats believe that it is time for a new direction that will value and reward the contributions that workers make to our nation's workforce and economy, and we will continue to fight for the clean minimum wage increase that working families deserve.

Unfortunately, Friday's vote on the minimum wage was about political theater rather than passing substantive legislation. That's why I joined most of my Democratic colleagues in voting against the plan to link a hike in the minimum wage to a deficit-expanding tax break for the rich.



The House majority intentionally created a bill that its own members could support and most Democrats would oppose. That's how they ended up with a proposal that provided a modest increase in the minimum wage, which has been stuck at $5.15 an hour for nine years, while also giving a huge tax cut for the wealthy that would increase the deficit. There is no other rationale for linking the two efforts.



I strongly support increasing the minimum wage from its current $5.15 an hour to $7.25 cents an hour. This provides low-wage earners a little help to pay for gasoline, food, rent and other critical items that cost far more than they nine years ago.  I could not vote for a fiscally irresponsible plan, which does not have the votes to pass the Senate, to slash the estate tax before our budget deficit is significantly reduced or eliminated.

I hope we can get our budget stuff done. I'd like to see us look at tax reform. I'd like to see some stuff on the Fair Tax, or at least some hearings on it.

Most of the people in my district aren't making minimum wage - from that standpoint, the market is taking care of itself.  While we look at the unemployment rate being the lowest in four years and the economy having sustained growth, it's also important that everyone benefits from the good economy, not just the privileged few.

What I'd hope is what we've been demanding for years: a clearly-found vote without too much baggage.

By AFL-CIO President John Sweeney

America’s workers need a real raise, not a vote on sham legislation that will not provide our nation’s workers with the relief they so desperately need.  As the House of Representatives considers legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage for the first time in 10 years, it’s absolutely critical that members vote to increase the minimum wage by $2.10 – from $5.15 to $7.25 – without “poison pills Read more...

I believe it is wrong for this Congress to allow citizens in the wealthiest nation in the world to work a full-time job and still live in poverty. Millions of working men and women, and their families, can ill-afford to wait for Washington partisan politics. It is far past time that Congress raise the minimum wage $2.10, from $5.15 to $7.25.

For me, this is not just a fiscal issue it is a moral issue. Since 1997 -- the last time Congress passed an increase in the minimum wage -- the price of gas has gone up, the price of food has gone up, rent has gone up, mortgage costs have gone up, the cost of college has gone up, the only thing that has not gone up is the minimum wage.

The reality is the minimum wage today is at lowest point in over 50 years.

I think that after ten years time it is time to make an adjustment.  I'm confident that we can get a bill that can raise the minimum wage and protect small businesses and farms from added burdens.