Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on the Increase in the Minimum Wage

Statement

Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on the Increase in the Minimum Wage

"Today, the federal minimum wage will increase for the first time in a decade. This is a real and momentous victory for millions of working families who are struggling to make ends meet.

Under legislation the Democratic Congress passed earlier this year, the minimum wage will rise 70 cents to $5.85 an hour today, and then again each year until it reaches $7.25 an hour in 2009. This pay increase will make a tangible difference in the lives of millions of hard-working Americans. Women in particular will benefit from the increase. Nine million women earn the minimum wage -- 59 percent of all minimum wage earners -- many of them struggling to support families. Today's increase provides workers an extra $1,400 a year to help pay for groceries, housing, energy costs, health care and all of the other necessities of every day life.

However, this must be only the first step toward lifting up working families who have been falling behind for too long. Even with a $7.25 minimum wage, a family of five with a full-time, minimum-wage earner that receives food stamps and the refundable tax credits would fall $1,139 below the poverty line. I am eager to work with my colleagues on new legislation that indexes the minimum wage, so that working families do not need to wait ten long years for another increase. And I look forward to continuing to work with them on a broader Democratic agenda that invests in our workers and creates opportunity again for all of our families. Today's wage increase is a critical first step towards that goal."

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