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Mr. ALLEN. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to legislation that my Democratic colleagues are pushing to raise the Federal minimum wage to $15 an hour--more than double its current level.
As a member of the House Education and Labor Committee, I participated in a hearing last week to speak against this radical proposal that will hurt low-skilled workers and small businesses the most. I am a proud small business owner, and I know for a fact that businesses pay wages according to their employees' skill set. In a free enterprise environment, a growing economy grows jobs which grows opportunities which grows wages.
I believe you reward a good day's work, but my Democratic colleagues don't want to believe that we can produce economic opportunity in concert with growing wages without the government interfering.
Signing the front of the paycheck and providing folks with a good job has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. That is why I oppose the Raise the Wage Act. This one-size-fits-all, top-down government regulation will destroy millions of hard-earned jobs and restrain our growing economy.
Democrats should focus on economic growth and getting the American people back to work, not an unpopular, progressive agenda.
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