Executive Order Raising Minimum Wage a Good First Step; Now Congress Needs to Act, Says Miller
WASHINGTON—Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) lauded President Obama’s executive order to raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers and called on Congress to finish the job for all Americans by passing the Fair Minimum Wage Act today in the following statement:
“By raising the minimum wage for federal contractors, President Obama’s new executive order will benefit hundreds of thousands of hard-working Americans and boost productivity, reduce costs, and improve efficiency on federal contracts.
“But more importantly, the president noted that this is just the first step toward ensuring that all Americans, including many workers with disabilities, receive fair pay for a fair day’s work. Nobody working full time should live in poverty. Unfortunately, our outdated minimum wage has left too many families in this country struggling to make ends meet. If Congress fails to act, they will continue to suffer.
“Americans everywhere know that it is time to raise the minimum wage. They know that it is good for the economy, good for businesses’ bottom line, and good for individual workers. It is time for Congress to get on board with the rest of the country and raise the minimum wage.”
Rep. Miller is the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee and the House author of the Fair Minimum Wage Act (H.R. 1010), which was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). The Miller-Harkin bill would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 in three annual stages and index it to inflation thereafter, while also raising the minimum wage for tipped workers for the first time in more than 20 years.
For more information on the Fair Minimum Wage Act, click here.
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