Flexibility for Workers Education Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman and ranking member for what they have done to try to make it better for those who we represent, but I am here to speak out against the flexibility for workers not to be paid education act. Yes, I said that.

This disastrous bill would be a blueprint to commit wage theft on a silver platter.

I know what it is like to be cheated out of wages. That happened to me, unfortunately, when I was a younger man. The rules that are set up are there to protect those who had the least ability to protect themselves.

A fair day's pay for a hard day's work. This is not a slogan. It is a principle of who we are in this country. It is those values that hold this country together.

This bill is pushing corporations to create a loophole. I want to take just a moment, ``voluntary for good causes'' is something we all do in America, and we have the ability to do it now. This bill would create more gray areas and, for those who want to exploit workers, give them a roadmap to do it.

Allowing companies to require worker attendance--and you call it voluntary and it is not job-related--without pay, this is what fundamentally is going to change here. If your boss requires it and if you work, you have to be paid. It is the system that is not broken now. This would create ambiguity for those workers saying they are voluntary.

That is not good. In fact, we call those captive meetings now when they come in to preach why worker unions are bad, but they have to pay them now. This would give them the ability to call it a training and not pay them. This is a loophole.

I urge those who introduced this to come up with language that would not allow that to happen. If you truly believe that, then the language that we offered would be something that we could both stand together on.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reject this bill. As I say, if it is not broke, you don't have to fix it. We have a system where people pay to go to college, to go to trade school. I went through an apprenticeship. There are ways we can do this that benefits workers while not creating an opportunity for those who want to exploit them.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time, I want to offer a motion to recommit the bill back to committee. If the House rules permitted, I would have offered this motion with an important amendment to this bill. My amendment, Raise the Wage Act, would ensure all workers receive a long-overdue raise. $7.25 an hour is minimum wage. That is incredible. Mr. Speaker, 2009 was the last time we touched this. It is unbelievable that 16 years have gone by and that we haven't found it within ourselves the values we hold dear in America to give those who have the least a raise.

We gave billion dollar giveaways to those in the top tax bracket, and we can't raise the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour. We should hang our heads in shame that we don't think about those who can't make it.

I have heard all of the excuses. We used to regularly have increases on a bipartisan basis since minimum wage started almost a half century ago. Both Democrat and Republican Presidents, Congress, we all understood it. Well, amnesia is something that has hit us. Please, Mr. Speaker, we need to raise the minimum wage. Our policy decisions cannot undercut workers and their families. Raising the minimum wage is not only good for the worker, but for their families.

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Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for this motion to recommit.

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Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

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Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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