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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
No public policy debate is more dominated by myth than our national struggle to raise the minimum wage so that all Americans can support their families.
Congress should listen to what poor working people like "Brian" are telling us about their lives. Brian and I talked recently, the perspiration streaming down his cheek on a cool March day as he sawed a pile of plastic automobile bumpers into small pieces for disposal.
"I’m trying to do the right thing," Brian explained. "I have a little girl to support, so I’m working here during the day and bussing tables at night. I would like to go back to school and get a better job, but we can’t even afford our own place on what I make."
I listen when people like Brian and Cathy Adams, a home care worker from Viola, Illinois, tell us how hard it is to support a family on today’s minimum wage.
"I literally live paycheck to paycheck," Ms. Adams told the AFL-CIO. "After paying the bills, whatever is left over goes to groceries. I have $9 in my savings account and worry about being able to save for my girls’ education....After working nearly 60 hours each week, I am discouraged that I’m barely able to make ends meet."
As the son of parents who worked all of their lives for less money than they deserved, I understand. Just an extra dollar an hour would make all the difference in the world.
The President and Congressional Democrats are determined to pass clean, straightforward legislation this year to raise the minimum hourly wage from $5.15 to $6.15 for the 10 million American workers who make less. ABC News has determined that 83% of the American public agrees with us.
Why don’t House Republicans get it?
In fact, the Republicans who control the Congress do understand the public’s support for raising the minimum wage. They are so afraid of losing their control in November that they were forced to allow us to vote for our minimum wage increase last week.
"You need an inoculation strategy, and I think everyone understands that," said Indiana Republican Mark Souder.
House Democrats (with a few Republicans) passed legislation that would give Brian and Cathy Adams their raise, but the Republicans attached a $122 billion tax cut for the wealthy that neither the President nor any prudent American could accept.
Democrats support affordable, targeted tax cuts that would help all working Americans and small businesses. The Republicans, however, are holding our minimum wage increase hostage to a $122 billion tax measure that would give three-fourths of its benefits to the wealthiest one percent and leave no money for restoring medicare, social security and education programs.
The Republicans are hoping that they can use smoke and mirrors to hide the reality of what (and whom) they actually do support. Working Americans must keep our eyes on the prize.
The facts are that 10 million Americans (136,000 in Maryland alone) would directly benefit from the raise we propose. Wage increases would ripple upward for higher-paid workers.
71% of the workers who benefitted from the last wage increase were adults older than 20. 40% of them were the sole breadwinners in their families.
After adjusting for inflation - the current minimum wage is 21% less than the minimum wage in 1979. A full-time minimum-wage worker earns only $10,712 year-round - $2,578 less than the income needed to raise a family of three out of poverty.
Raising the minimum wage does not cost jobs - since the 1996-1997 minimum wage increase, we have created 10 million jobs, and the unemployment rate has fallen to nearly the lowest level in 30 years: 4.1%.
Principles and the truth - not politics and myths - should determine the outcome of America’s debate about the minimum wage. When America is denied a raise, it hurts our neighbors, friends and families.
Armed with the facts, working Americans will win this struggle for a living wage - either before next November or on election day.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.
