Norton Says President's Executive Order Raising the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors Gives Congress a Challenge that Must Not Be Relaxed

Press Release

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who has been a leader in the call for improved wages for low-wage workers employed by federal government contractors, today applauded the White House announcement that President Obama will raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers to $10.10. The announcement, which the president will address during his State of the Union speech, comes after Norton and her Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) colleagues for months have pressed for livable wages for federal contract workers. Many Americans support increasing the minimum wage, with two-thirds of Americans supporting the increase in recent polls. It is not yet clear whether the executive order will index the raised minimum wage to inflation, as the Harkin-Miller bill to increase the federal minimum wage would, but Norton hopes it will.

"These low-wage workers are the leading edge of what I believe has become the first real movement to give form to the rhetoric about the 99 percent," said Norton. "The President has now not only used his authority for workers under his control, he has set the bar for Congress to do the same for the nation's workers. Congress must take up the challenge and use this momentum towards fairness to move on the Harkin-Miller bill to increase the federal minimum wage."

Norton has long-fought for improved wages for workers employed by federal contractors, and has participated in Change to Win meetings with workers. Last July, at a CPC press conference, where Norton stood in solidarity with workers who were on strike protesting what they called their "unlivable wages," she discussed how executive orders have been used in the past to promote public policy and how the president could utilize an executive order to improve low-wage contract worker pay. In addition, a CPC was letter sent to the president on July 2, 2013, urging him to establish a working group of federal agencies to consider recommendations to improve wages, including counting wages in the point system routinely used in competitions to determine recipients of federal contracts. Last May, workers employed by fast food and other retail and concession contractors that work with the federal government attended a CPC hearing that included Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), CPC co-chairs Congressmen Keith Ellison (D-MI) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and other members of the CPC, including Norton. The widespread selection by federal agencies of vendors and contractors that pay their employees low wages was documented in a recent Demos report, entitled "Underwriting Bad Jobs: How our tax dollars are funding low-wage work and fuelling inequality," which was released at a CPC press conference and rally last May, where Ellison and Norton spoke alongside low-wage workers.

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