Raise the Wage Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairwoman from North Carolina for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly rise in favor of upward mobility. I rise in favor of greater opportunity. But this bill doesn't do that. I rise in opposition to this underlying bill.

Mr. Speaker, increasing the Federal minimum wage by 107 percent is an extreme and unprecedented policy that will have a severe and negative impact on many American families, our Nation's workforce, our economy, and once again, most importantly, hardworking American families.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, if enacted, this legislation would cause approximately 3.7 million workers--let's extrapolate that to families--across this Nation to lose their jobs by 2025.

My home State of Pennsylvania has estimated that more than 120,000 individuals, thereby families, would be negatively impacted through the loss of their jobs. That is not upward mobility. That is downward mobility.

Mr. Speaker, the majority of Americans, 54 percent, think losing up to 3.7 million jobs for a $15 minimum wage is not a good idea. And 42 percent of families with a minimum-wage earner would see a net reduction in total family income under the $15 minimum wage. That is according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Mr. Speaker, that is totally unacceptable.

Now, I have always been a proponent of Federal policies that aim to lift individuals out of poverty and provide them with skills necessary to gain good-paying, family-sustaining jobs. We have done that in this body, and it is working.

We should be promoting bipartisan policies that are proven to enhance workforce development. For example, last Congress we passed the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, restoring rungs on a ladder of opportunity.

The President has signed that bill into law, and we are working diligently with the States to ensure that they are doing everything possible to fill the 7.5 million open jobs in this country, most of them good, family-sustaining jobs.

We need to ensure that policies enhance job-training programs; so we are not talking about a minimum wage but, rather, arming individuals with skills to compete and to earn well above a minimum wage.

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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, 63 percent of Americans support our leadership expanding pathways to greater opportunity through CTE, the better way.

I want everyone who is willing to work in this country to succeed, but this legislation is not the answer. I encourage my colleagues to oppose the bill, and then we can talk after this debate so we can get to work on legislation to make sure job seekers have the skills to compete and succeed in the modern workforce.

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