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OWENS DEMANDS REPUBLICANS TO VOTE
ON MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE

Washington, DC -- July 30, 2004 -- Congressman Major R. Owens today called for immediate enactment of the “Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2004,” a bill he sponsored to raise the federal minimum wage to $7 an hour.

“Congressional Republicans have blocked Democratic efforts to get a vote on this crucial issue, but now even Governor Pataki has called for speedy passage of a federal minimum wage increase.  The Republican leadership ignores this at their peril,” Owens said.

As the senior Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, Owens decried the failure of Republicans to give hard-working Americans a much-needed pay raise.  “As Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Kerry said in his acceptance speech, no one who works full time should live in poverty.  Increasing the minimum wage to $7 would lift seven million working families and children out of poverty,” Owens said.

In an economy marked by off-shoring, out-sourcing, and high levels of unemployment, more and more workers are forced to take minimum wage jobs to support their families.  “Refusing to give an essential pay raise to these workers represents the worst of corporate greed.  Corporate CEO’s have given themselves whopping, six and seven digit pay raises as workers paid entry level wages continue to struggle,” Owens stated.  “It is both unconscionable and un-American to have such a huge gap between the wages of hard-working men and women and their corporate bosses.”

The “Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2004” would increase the federal minimum wage in 3 steps to $7 an hour.  The minimum wage was last raised in 1997 and is now nearing a 50 year low in its real value. 

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