Minimum Wage Fairness Act -- Motion to Proceed -- Continued
Floor Speech
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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Thank you, Madam President.
I came to the floor to join Senator Harkin, Senator Udall, and Senator Boxer in supporting the increase in the minimum wage that would give 28 million American workers a very long overdue raise.
I know that the years since the economic collapse in 2008 have really been hard for families in New Hampshire and across the country. Although we have seen CEO salaries rise, pay for working families has stagnated. While the cost of food, transportation, and childcare all continue to climb and families struggle to make ends meet, the minimum wage for American workers has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009. At that rate a single mother working full time in New Hampshire does not earn enough to keep her family out of poverty. So let me just be clear: Adults working full time cannot support their families on the minimum wage, and that needs to change.
The fair minimum wage act would increase the minimum wage to $10.10 over 2 years. That would provide a raise to nearly 20 percent of New Hampshire's workforce and lift 10,000 people in New Hampshire out of poverty. Nationwide, nearly one-third of all minimum wage workers are women over the age of 25. In New Hampshire 70 percent of minimum wage workers are women. This effort is about these women and the 34,000 children in the Granite State whose parents would have a little more in their paychecks each week if we increased the minimum pay to $10.10.
I know that many critics claim that only teenagers hold those minimum wage jobs but, sadly, that is just not true. Teens make up only 12 percent of those who would get a raise if we boosted pay to $10.10 an hour. Minimum wage workers are also veterans. The fair minimum wage act is about giving a raise to the 4,500 New Hampshire veterans who now earn $7.25 an hour--the minimum wage--and who are struggling to get by. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting to give these veterans a raise.
Making sure workers in New Hampshire get a fair wage for an honest day's work is something that I have focused on since I was Governor. In 1997 I signed a bill into law that boosted minimum wages for tipped workers in New Hampshire. Nearly 75 percent of those tipped workers are women. As was the case then, today we must act to raise the minimum wage to ensure that hard-working Americans get a fair shot at success. I urge my colleagues to join me on both sides of the aisle in supporting the fair minimum wage act. Thank you, Madam President.
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