Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007

FAIR MINIMUM WAGE ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - January 10, 2007)

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Ms. KAPTUR. I thank the chairman of the committee for bringing this important bill to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, the minimum wage is a women's working issue, and it is an issue for our children with over 1.4 million working mothers across this country who earn the minimum wage.

I would say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, what is it worth to you to have someone lift and bathe your elderly sick relative in a nursing home and empty their bed pans? Is it worth more than $5.15 an hour?

How about cleaning the bathrooms of the Democratic and Republican Conventions? People tend to not pay attention to those workers. How about washing dishes in restaurants across this country? How about caring for dozens and dozens of 3-year-olds in daycare centers across this Nation? How about those women that lift all those heavy trays at those restaurants that you all eat in, bringing food to the people across this Nation? Surely it is worth more than $5.15 an hour.

Even when it is raised to $7.25 an hour, if a woman has children, she is going to live in poverty anyway, so she has to work two jobs, most of them without health insurance. Preserve the value of work in this country. Vote for the increase in the minimum wage. It is the right thing to do.

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