Give Low-Wage Workers Some Breathing Room, Perez Testifies

Citing lives filled with anxiety and struggle, Secretary Perez urged Congress to raise the federal minimum wage and give low-wage workers some much needed breathing room. During testimony on March 12 before a Senate committee considering a gradual increase in the wage to $10.10 per hour, Perez told lawmakers that it's past time to raise the wage, which has been set at $7.25 per hour for nearly five years. "The purchasing power of the minimum wage has eroded over time, undermining the economic security of families," Perez said. "Today the minimum wage is worth about 20 percent less than it was when President Reagan was in office." Perez also told lawmakers that low-wage workers are living in poverty, struggling daily with whether to buy a gallon of milk for the family or a gallon of gas for the car so they can get to their jobs. Perez cited studies showing that extremely low incomes are forcing those workers to rely on food stamps and other government assistance programs, costing taxpayers billions of dollars each year. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said that lifting workers and their families above the poverty level with government assistance programs is not an appropriate policy. "No one who works full time in our society ought to live in poverty," he said. "The answer is just raising the minimum wage." A raise to $10.10 would benefit 28 million workers and lift about 2 million out of poverty.