Labor Dept. Protecting Americans’ Economic Security, But Congress Must Support Workers and Raise Minimum Wage, Committee Learns
WASHINGTON—While U.S. Department of Labor initiatives will help increase working families’ income and put Americans back to work, Republicans in Congress continue to hold up legislative proposals to strengthen the economy, members learned at a hearing with Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez today.
“The core principle [behind the Labor Department’s budget] is as American as they come: the notion that if you work hard and play by the rules, you should have the opportunity to succeed,” said Perez, who was called before the committee to testify on the department’s fiscal year 2015 budget proposal. “In America, your ability to get ahead should be determined by hard work and personal responsibility – not by the circumstances of your birth. Making good on that promise of opportunity is central to the Labor Department's mission.”
The Obama administration has recently announced a number of plans to help fulfill that mission and support hard-working Americans. These include raising the minimum wage for federal contractors to $10.10 an hour; updating overtime rules to allow millions of additional workers to receive overtime pay; protecting retirement plans from high fees and ensuring workers receive sound investment advice; and fighting child labor abroad and helping to level the playing field for American workers with our trade partners.
Building on that work, today the National Economic Council, the Council of Economic Advisers, the Domestic Policy Council, and the Department of Labor published a joint report in support of Rep. George Miller’s (D-Calif.) legislation to raise the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10. The report found that women account for more than half of all workers who would benefit from increasing the minimum wage, and that raising the minimum wage will reduce child poverty among female-headed households and help close the gender wage gap.
“Mr. Secretary, I commend you for your leadership in tackling these critical issues. Yet we need to be doing more,” said Miller, senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. “Today, we are seeing an alarming growth in income inequality. That inequality is holding back our economic growth because stagnant wages have led to weak demand, which is keeping businesses from hiring and investing.”
Miller continued: “We must pass two tried and true ways to stimulate that kind of growth that are currently pending before Congress: extend unemployment benefits to those who simply can’t find work and increase the minimum wage so that no one who works full-time has to raise their family in poverty. Unfortunately, House Republican leadership continues to refuse to act on either measure.”
Millions of hard-working Americans continue to struggle in an economy that has yet to fully recover from the Great Recession. Approximately 20.6 million workers remain either unemployed or underemployed.
“Given current economic conditions, congressional inaction is unacceptable,” Miller said. “We should work with Secretary Perez in the final months of this Congress to pass legislation that will increase the minimum wage, tackle wage inequity for women, protect senior citizens and LGBT worker from discrimination, and provide quality job training to boost employment opportunities.”
Miller’s Fair Minimum Wage Act (H.R. 1010) would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 and then provide for automatic, annual increases linked to changes in the cost of living. The legislation would also gradually raise the minimum wage for tipped workers, which currently stands at just $2.13 an hour. Though 195 members of Congress have co-sponsored the bill and signed a petition demanding a vote, Republican leadership refuses to bring the bill up for consideration on the House floor.
“As President Obama has said, the defining challenge of our generation is … to protect and expand opportunity for America's working families,” said Perez. “To create jobs, put Americans back to work, and give workers and businesses the skills they need to out-compete the world, everyone must have a seat at the table. […] Idealism and pragmatism are not mutually exclusive.”
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