WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) today announced the start of a discharge petition drive on the minimum wage bill.  If the petition garners 218 signatures --- the bill to increase the minimum wage will be "discharged" from its current logjam and brought to the House floor for debate.  The proposed bill would raise the minimum wage by one dollar in a two year period  After passage, the bill would be held for 30 calendar days pending passage of another bill to provide small business tax relief.

"It is impossible to support a family on $5.15 an hour.  A single mother with two children working at the current minimum wage in Los Angeles earns just $10,700 per year — $2,600 below the poverty line," Rep. Roybal-Allard said.  "This isn't only an economic issue — it's a moral issue.

"Under this proposal, 1,171,587 working people in California would get a pay raise — that's 8.8 percent of the workforce.

This latest move follows the Senate Republican leadership's failure to garner enough votes needed to block Democrats from bringing up the minimum wage proposal to the Bankruptcy reform bill.  Republicans — long opposed to an increase in the minimum wage — shelved the bankruptcy bill thwarting Democrats' hopes of pushing ahead with votes on raising the wage floor.

"America can afford an increase in the minimum wage — and now is the time to do it.  Currently our country is experiencing extraordinary sustained economic growth.  The stock market is soaring, Inflation is low, unemployment is low, and interest rates are low.

"But the prosperity has not flowed fairly to minimum wage workers.  They are still having trouble making ends meet.  60 percent of minimum wage earners are women; nearly 3/4 are adults; 3/5 are the sole breadwinners in their families; and  more than ½ work full-time.  These families need help, and they deserve an increase in their income.

"President Clinton supports this proposal and I am committed to working in Congress to pass this legislation.  Minimum wage workers in Los Angeles and across the country deserve a decent, livable wage."