The only way to grow the economy in a way that benefits the bottom 90 percent is to change the structure of the economy. At the least, this requires stronger unions and a higher minimum wage.
The minimum wage should be a living wage.
I have said, on a number of occasions, that we could have a lower minimum wage or no minimum wage.
For food service industry and retail, I'm for the minimum wage being increased to at least $12. Not for manufacturing. Software and robotics are going to revolutionize manufacturing in the next 10 years. In the meantime, we have to compete with overseas manufacturing.
As we move beyond Women's History Month, I am committed to advancing legislation to raise the minimum wage and ensure women are paid equally for equal work.
My wife and I decided to try and kick start our kitchens to a $15 minimum wage for cooks. I've probably had to go through and raise every menu price now by 50 cents because it took away my profit. I just underestimated what it was going to cost.
Statistical studies are all over the lot about the pluses and minuses of raising the minimum wage.
You can't expect a woman who's holding down a part-time job to train for the biggest race in the world. She has to have a minimum wage, and I think it's something that is pretty crazy that we don't have that.
Mr. Speaker, the time for an increase in the minimum wage has not just arrived; it is long overdue.
For many young people, the minimum wage is a stepping stone to higher employment levels.
When I was young, I had minimum wage jobs as a busboy, flipping burgers and parking cars.
Raising the minimum wage means raising the living wage - and that's good news for Ohio.
The first job I ever had was at a pool-liner-manufacturing plant. Minimum wage was $4.25, and that's what I was making. It was this huge, hot, un-air-conditioned factory staffed with all women and me. This is in Georgia, during the summertime, so it was pretty ridiculous.
The most important lesson to take away from allowing the minimum wage and unemployment benefit data to talk is that abstract notions of what is right, good and just should be examined from a concrete, operational point of view. A dose of reality is most edifying.
We'd certainly have paid leave already by now, we'd have equal pay, we'd have a living minimum wage - a lot of things would change having that diversity of opinion in Washington. We certainly wouldn't be debating whether women should have access to birth control.
