Time for Congress to
Raise the Minimum Wage for the American People
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/03/08/weekly-address-time-congress-raise-minimum-wage-american-people?utm_source=snapshot&utm_medium=email&utm_content=030814-topper
Remarks of President
Barack Obama,March 8, 2014
Hi, everybody. This week, I traveled to New
England, where I was joined by four governors who are working to
raise the minimum wage in each of their states.
And they’ve also joined me in calling on Congress to raise the minimum
wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour.
Because it would give nearly 800,000 Americans in their states a raise –
and lift wages for about 28 million across the country.
So these governors
aren’t waiting for Congress to make up its mind. And in my State of the Union Address, I asked
America’s
business leaders to go ahead and do what they could to raise their employees’
wages, too. And increasingly, it’s not
just large companies like Costco or the Gap that choose to pay their employees
higher starting wages.
It’s smaller
businesses like Jaxson’s, a family-owned ice cream parlor in South
Florida. They answered the
call and raised their wages so that more than 70 employees would earn at least
$10.10 an hour, without cutting back on hiring.
And two weeks ago, an
Atlanta small business owner named Darien Southerland
[SUTH-er-lind] wrote me to share a lesson his grandmother taught him – that if
you treat your employees right, they’ll treat you right. And Vice President Biden paid him a visit
this week.
I agree with these
business owners, which is why I issued an executive order requiring federal
contractors to pay their employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour. It’s good for our bottom line. And working Americans have struggled through
stagnant wages for far too long.
A clear majority of
Americans support raising the minimum wage, because we believe that nobody who
works full-time should have to live in poverty.
About half of all Republicans support raising the minimum wage,
too. It’s just too bad they don’t serve
in Congress. Because the Republicans who
do serve in Congress don’t want to vote on the minimum wage at all. Some even want to get rid of it
completely. Seriously.
That’s why what
business leaders and everyday Americans are doing to raise wages is so
important. Because change doesn’t come
from Washington – change comes to Washington. I’ve always believed that, and it’s true in
this case, too. Outside Washington, Americans
are ready to put aside old political arguments and move this country
forward. The American people are way
ahead of Congress on this issue, and we’ve just got to let Congress know that. It’s time for “ten-ten.” It’s time to give America a raise. And it’s time to restore opportunity for all.
Thanks, and have a
great weekend.