Issue Position: Jobs & Economy

Issue Position

Creating Good Middle-Class Jobs and Growing Our Economy

The son of hard-working parents, both employed by the local railroad in the working-class city of East St. Louis, IL, Dick Durbin has spent his career fighting to create good-paying jobs that can support middle-class families like the one in which he was raised.

While our economy is getting stronger today, we can do more to ensure that these middle class families are sharing in that success. That's why Dick supported investment in critical job training programs in Illinois to ensure our workforce is trained and prepared for jobs in growing industries. He led the effort to create partnerships between community colleges and local businesses to help workers gain the skills needed to find good-paying jobs in their communities.

Dick sponsored legislation to promote entrepreneurship and innovation by establishing a network of laboratories -- like those at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry and the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana -- that give small businesses and students access to high-tech equipment and educational resources and allow them to create new products and grow our economy. He's helped secure federal investment in cutting edge research that can grow new industries and create jobs -- from energy efficient car batteries to faster computer chips.

He also supports an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10/hour, an extension of unemployment insurance to help those still struggling to get back into the labor force, and real tax reform that eliminates subsidies for big oil and ends tax breaks for companies that move American jobs overseas.

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