Time to Lift the
Minimum Wage and Give America
a Raise
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/02/22/weekly-address-time-lift-minimum-wage-and-give-america-raise?utm_source=snapshot&utm_medium=email&utm_content=022214-video
Remarks of President
Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
February 22, 2014
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/02/22/weekly-address-time-lift-minimum-wage-and-give-america-raise
Hi, everybody.
Restoring the idea of
opportunity for all requires a year of action from all of us. Wherever I can act on my own, I will – and
whenever I can ask more Americans to help, I’ll do that too.
In my State of the
Union Address, for example, I asked more business leaders to take action to
raise their employees’ wages. Because
even though our economy is growing, and our businesses have created about eight
and a half million new jobs over the past four years, average wages have barely
budged.
So it’s good news
that, earlier this week, one of America’s
largest retailers, The Gap, decided to raise wages for its employees beginning
this year. Their decision will benefit
about 65,000 workers in the U.S. That means more families will be able to
raise their kids, finish their studies, or keep up on their bills with a little
less financial stress and strain.
Gap’s CEO explained
their decision simply – he said, “[It’s] right for our brands, good for our
people, and beneficial to our customers.”
And he’s right – raising Americans’ wages isn’t just a good deed; it’s
good business and good for our economy.
It helps reduce turnover, it boosts productivity, and it gives folks
some more money to spend at local businesses.
And as a chief
executive myself, that’s why I took action last week to lift more workers’
wages by requiring federal contractors to pay their employees a fair wage of at
least $10.10 an hour.
In the year since I
first asked Congress to raise the minimum wage, six states have passed laws to
raise theirs, and more states are working on it as we speak. But only Congress can finish the job and lift
Americans’ wages across the country.
Right now, there’s a
bill before Congress that would boost America’s minimum wage to $10.10 an
hour. That’s easy to remember –
“ten-ten.” That bill would lift wages
for more than 16 million Americans without requiring a single dollar in new taxes
or spending. But even though a majority
of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans across the country support raising
the minimum wage, Republicans in Congress don’t want to give it a vote.
Hardworking Americans
deserve better than “no.” Let’s tell
Congress to say “yes.” Pass that
bill. Give America a raise. Because here in America, no one who works hard
should have to live in poverty – and everyone who works hard should have a
chance to get ahead.
Thanks, and have a
great weekend.