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Address: America Is a Place Where Hard Work Should Be Rewarded
The White House
October 11, 2014
Hi, everybody. For the first time in more than 6 years, the
unemployment rate is below 6%. Over the
past four and a half years, our businesses have created more than 10 million
new jobs. That’s the longest
uninterrupted stretch of private sector job creation in our history.
But while our businesses are
creating jobs at the fastest pace since the ‘90s, the typical family hasn’t
seen a raise since the ‘90s also. Folks
are feeling as squeezed as ever. That’s
why I’m going to keep pushing policies that will create more jobs faster and
raise wages faster – policies like rebuilding our infrastructure, making sure
women are paid fairly, and making it easier for young people to pay off their
student loans.
But one of the simplest and
fastest ways to start helping folks get ahead is by raising the minimum wage.
Ask yourself: could you live on
$14,500 a year? That’s what someone
working full-time on the minimum wage makes.
If they’re raising kids, that’s below the poverty line. And that’s not right. A hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.
Right now, a worker on the
federal minimum wage earns $7.25 an hour.
It’s time to raise that to $10.10 an hour.
Raising the federal minimum wage
to ten dollars and ten cents an hour, or ten-ten, would benefit 28 million
American workers. 28 million. And these aren’t just high schoolers on their
first job. The average worker who would
benefit is 35 years old. Most low-wage
workers are women. And that extra money
would help them pay the bills and provide for their families. It also means they’ll have more money to spend
at local businesses – which grows the economy for everyone.
But Congress hasn’t voted to
raise the minimum wage in seven years.
Seven years. And when it got a
vote earlier this year, Republicans flat-out voted “no.” That’s why, since the first time I asked
Congress to give America a raise, 13 states, 21 cities and D.C. have gone
around Congress to raise their workers’ wages.
Five more states have minimum wage initiatives on the ballot next month. More companies are choosing to raise their
workers’ wages. A recent survey shows
that a majority of small business owners support a gradual increase to ten-ten
an hour, too. And I’ve done what I can
on my own by requiring federal contractors to pay their workers at least
ten-ten an hour.
On Friday, a coalition of
citizens – including business leaders, working moms, labor unions, and more
than 65 mayors – told Republicans in Congress to stop blocking a raise for
millions of hard-working Americans. Because we believe that in America, nobody
who works full-time should ever have to raise a family in poverty. And I’m going to keep up this fight until we
win. Because America deserves a raise
right now. And America should forever be
a place where your hard work is rewarded.
Thanks, and have a great weekend. |
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