Raise the Minimum Wage

Floor Speech

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Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Congresswoman Adams, that was such a forceful description of why it is so necessary for us to act, to act on this moral imperative, which we are facing in this moment.

We have to remember this is a historic moment, so this is our time to take historic action. When we say thank you to those essential workers, we must express our gratitude in things like the minimum wage because without that, then they are just words.

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Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Working hard enough is not enough if you can't make ends meet. Those are wonderful words.

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Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my colleague from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib).

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Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Mr. Speaker, Congresswoman Tlaib talked about the fact that now is the time. There is a call and an urgency for us to do this because it is the time of the pandemic. It is the time of such great suffering.

My father had a saying that when it was time to get important stuff done, he would say, ``Ahora es cuando,'' it is time now. His saying is ringing through your words, and it is calling upon us to say what we need to say so that we do what we need to do and raise the wage. So, ahora es cuando. It is, indeed, time now.

Thank you for explaining the urgency of what it is like to have to boil your water because you can't afford the utility bill. That should break all of our hearts, and it should urge us each to act and to act now with the power that we have been given by our constituents.

I would now like to turn to one of my colleagues, one of our freshman class from New York City, Congressman Torres.

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Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Torres.

What he has told us today is about the fact that there are districts in the country, including mine, including so many that we have heard about, where the minimum wage is too low. What we can't do is we can't have a United States of America where what you earn depends on where you live. That is what we are trying to do today, is say that where you live does not impact what you earn or where you work.

Today, at a Senate hearing, Costco announced that it would begin paying their workers a $16-an-hour minimum wage. They have already recognized that that $15 level is too low, and they want to keep their workers.

The reality is, we know that when people are paid well, then the turnover is less. The commitment is better, and paying a minimum wage, paying something where somebody can go home to their children, can put that food on the table without relying on SNAP benefits, that they can then say: I have done it. I can go work. I can come home.

And it doesn't matter whether I live in your district, whether I live in Seattle, or whether I live in Coronado. It doesn't matter because there is a floor that is the same across the country, and it is not a poverty wage.

What we have now is a poverty wage. That is very clear. If you cannot use the minimum wage that we have now to pay your rent, to buy your food, and to pay your utilities, then that is the equivalent of a poverty wage. We know that. We know that because of the wages we have across our country.

We have all worked. Congressman Torres, you have worked and looked to see: When does the Community Development Block Grant come in? Does it look like we are a distressed community or not? They look at what that median income is, and if you are earning the median wage, you are in poverty, right?

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Mr. Speaker, earlier we spoke about the fact that to say thank you to these essential workers regularly and over and over again but to refuse to pay a living wage, a minimum wage of at least what we are asking for in this bill, is really not saying thank you at all, is it? It rings hollow.

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Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Congressman Levin, I think you raised exactly the points that we have been talking about.

This minimum wage, it should be a floor. And it is something that everybody supports. Everybody supports it, whether you are a Republican, whether you are a Democrat, and it is time to get it done.

Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Congressman Levin, I love the way you describe this as a ``floor of decency.'' And it is our moral compass that tells us that we must vote for this and we must vote for families now. And so we have heard what is happening in your State.

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