Raise we know that many of those workers work in the fastfood industry. The c. E. O. Of a fastfood corporation makes, we figure, about 8. 7 million a year. While his average employees make something about around 19,000 a year. And i dont im not one of those that says, well, thats you know, they have to work a million hours to get to the 8 million a year, but just to put in perspective whats happened with wages. As wages for c. E. O. s and for top management have gone up and up and up, and weve seen productivity of workers go up and up and up, we know that wages for those workers have simply not kept up. Not just minimumwage workers but workers overall. So since the 1970s, and especially since 2000, profits have gone up, productivity has gone up, executive salaries have gone up dramatically, yet workers wages have been stagnant. No better example of that, mr. President , than the minimum wage. The minimum wage was raised my first year in the senate, my first speech on the senate fliewfloorwith senator barack oa sitting in the presiding officer chair officers chair with senator kennedy and senator byrd on the floor that day, was talking about and debating increasing the minimum wage. We did that in a bipartisan way in 200 7. The bill was signed by president bush. Thats the good news. The bad news is there was no costofliving adjustment, there was no escalation so that the wage would keep up with inflation. And theres not been a minimumwage increase since th then. We also know another thing, mr. President , about the minimum wage. That is, for tipped workers, those who work in diners, those who work pushing in many cases pushing wheelchairs at airports. They dont work for the airlines, they work for a subcontracting company that pays subminimum wage. They work for places theyre val lays, theyre sometimes custodian, theyre people who are in positions in hotels where they might get tipped. But their minimum wage is only 2. 13 an hour. So a woman thats working the floors in a diner, a man thats pushing a a wheelchair or driving a cart in an airport, their minimum wage is only 2. 13 an hour. Some are paid more than that but some of them are paid as the as 2, 3, or 4 an hour, expecting that supposedly expecting that tips will make up the difference and get them to minimum wage or above. One of the things that the legislation that the assistant majority leader, whos joined me on the floor, has been working on with senator harkin and several others of us, is the new minimumwage increase, we want to increase minimum wage to 10. 10 an hour. 90 cents at the president s signature, then another 90 cents then another 90 cents. We also want to increase the tipped wage, not increased for 22 years, the tipped minimum wage, to lock it in at 70 of the real minimum wage. So as the real minimum wage increases, by the year 2016 under our legislation, and the workers minimum wage would then be 10. 10 an hour, subminimum wage, a tipped employee at an airport or in a restaurant will then be making 7 and a few cents an hour. Thats the reason that and both of those wages, both the tipped minimum wage and the minimum wage, will have a costofliving adjustment so we dont have to every five or six years come back, have a big political fight here, raise the minimum wage. It shouldnt be a big political fight because clearly people in this country overwhelmingly democrats, independents and republicans think the minimum wage should be increased. And not just mr. President , it will not just be the tipped employee or the minimumwage worker at a fastfood restaurant who gets a raise thats now at 7. 50 or 8 an hour, even 9 an hour. As the minimum wage goes up, so will wages for a bunch of lowincome, slightly above minimumwage workers go up. So in a fastfood restaurant where perhaps the night manager may make a couple dollars more an hour than the line workers who are at the counter, although the night manager does plenty of that, too, the night manager might make a couple dollars above, 3 above minimum wage, we raise the minimum wage raising everybodys wages, the night managers wage will increase, too. The oh pony tonight the minimum wage the opponents to the minimum wage, it amazes me that people can sit in this institution with good salaries that we make as members of the senate and members of the house in both parties, with good benefits, good Health Insurance, decent pensions paid for by taxpayers and oppose the minimum wage. It equally amazes me that they can oppose extending Unemployment Benefits. In my state alone and i know in the presiding officers state of illinois its a higher number. In the majority leaders assistant majority leader, presiding officers state, a significant number of people, over 120,000 in my state alone, their Christmas Present will be that Unemployment Benefits have stopped for them, have been eliminated unless congress acts. Thats why its so important not just to enact a minimum wage in the weeks ahead but that we extend Unemployment Benefits for those those workers who are looking for jobs. These arent people that are just just dont want to work. These are people that are looking for jobs, out they have to look for jobs in order to qualify. Its not a lot of money. Its 40 or 50 typically of their wage, what they were used to making. There arent enough jobs in this country, there arent enough jobs in connecticut and illinois and ohio that they can find jobs, and to take that minimum addition take thaminimum takt Unemployment Benefits away, when, number one, think about what it means so that happen, and, number two, as the assistant majority leader knows, this helps our economy. When people receive Unemployment Benefits, theyre spending it. Theyre spending it in the Grocery Store, at the hardware store, theyre spending it at the Auto Repair Shop to fix their car so they can go out and get a job and go out and go to work. So all of those are reasons that raising the minimum wage is so important, extending Unemployment Insurance is so important. And one more point before yielding to the assistant majority leader from illinois. Its not welfare, its Unemployment Insurance. People pay in when three working working when theyre working hoping theyre not going to collect. So theyre collecting their insurance basic. Thats what insurance is. Things arent working right, you get Unemployment Benefits, Unemployment Insurance, social insurance. Thats why this is so important. I yield to the senator from illinois. Mr. Durbin will the senator from ohio yield through the claire for a question . Officer the senator fromthe pre. Mr. Durbin can the senator from ohio recall, it was not that long ago that the issues that were discussing were largely bipartisan issues. When it came to raising the minimum wage periodically, senator ted kennedy used to sit back at that desk and he would lead the effort. And it would turn out to be a bipartisan vote to increase the minimum wage. That over the years reflected a bipartisan consensus that if youre working for a living in america, you ought to be able to get by, at least, you know, have a little bit put away for your future. But were finding more and more that people who are working for a minimum wage cannot get by. I listened to public radio over the break. There was a lady on there who works i believe it was in the Hospitality Industry and she was explaining that she was on food stamps. And she said she had a small family and made 7. 25 an hour. And with her children, she still qualified for the snap program, the Food Stamp Program. Well, i did a quick calculation in my mind. I think this is correct. She was making somewhere in the range of 14,000 to 15,000 a year. At 7. 25 an hour. A minimum wage in many parts of the United States. She still qualified for a helping hand to feed her children. This is not a lazy person. This is a person who gets up and goes to work. My guess is its not an easy job. Shes making 7. 25 but still needs a helping hand. I find it interesting now that issues that used to be bipartisan to help people just like her, working people, have now become too partisan. We should have a bipartisan consensus that regularly we increase the minimum wage in america to keep up with the cost of living. And i hope we all agree that if you have a working mom who is doing her best and needs a helping hand to feed her children, food stamps should be available to her. Of the 47 million americans receiving food stamps, 22 million of the 47 million are children. One million veterans. Nine million elderly and disabled. Threefourths of the recipients of food stamps fall into that category children, veterans, elderly and disabled and yet we are up against a battle on the farm bill about whether were going to make deep cuts in food stamps. Now, it seems to me that this is counterproductive. We should be helping working families get by, those who struggle paycheck to paycheck, to at least feed their children. Going back to the point thats been made by the senator from ohio, when you look across the board at the vulnerability of working families, its wages, its that food on the table, and many times turns out to be Health Insurance. The numberone reason for bankruptcy in America Today is people peoples failure to be able to pay their medical bills. And what were trying to do with the Affordable Care act is to say to everyone in my state, 1. 8 million uninsured people in illinois were going to give you a chance maybe for the first time in your life to have Health Insurance so you wont go broke when you get sick. That, to me, when we start putting it together, its the paycheck, its the food, its the health care, its the housing. In a county like ours that wants to build the next middle class, these, to me, are the bedrocks of what you need to provide to working families. And it seems weve fallen far away from that goal of trying to provide for working families. And its become just way too partisan. I was on a talk show with the senator, your senator from ohio, that you share the state with and he argued the classic argument against raising the minimum wage its a job killer, he says. You raise the wage 50 cents an hour, a dollar an hour, whatever it is, there will be fewer jobs. Well, it turns out that history and the Economic Analysis prove him wrong. Thats the argument thats been made against increasing the minimum wage since Franklin Roosevelt first increased it back in the 1930s. So id ask the senator from ohio, when you take a look at the vulnerability of working families in america and those whove lost their job trying to find another, when you look at that, the basic as that were talking about i think give them a fighting chance to survive, to raise their families, maybe to send their kids to school for a better education and a better future. Failing to do that does just the opposite. Id ask the senator from ohio if he would include in this the Affordable Care act . Mr. Brown yeah, i think thats right. I first of all, the points that the assistant majority leader was making about the bipartisanship is has been i think is exactly right. And whats whats most not discouraging but most perhaps the most disappointing part of this is even as recently as 2007, president bush signed this bill. We passed it it was my first month or two in the senate when we passed it. It was a big bipartisan vote in the house. It was a big bipartisan i remember exactly the numbers in the senate. Lots of republicans joined i believe almost every democrat or maybe every democrat. But again, it was gladly signed by the republican president of the United States. And you can trace from the time of the minimum wage, when hugo black sat at this desk and helped to write the minimum wage and president roosevelt signed the bill, for all these decades, the minimum wage, in fits and starts but its kept up with inflation most of the time until the 1980s. Its been signed on by people in both parties. The same with the extension of Unemployment Benefits, the that we discussed. And its this extension of Unemployment Benefits. Again, social insurance. You pay in when you dont need it and when you need it, you can take money out of the social Insurance Fund and get Unemployment Benefits if you cant find a job. And, you know, this these are these are really tough times. Some of my colleagues i dont think understand sometimes how tough a time it is for so many families. Theres a the the president of the United States, the last president from illinois before this one, Abraham Lincoln used to talk about getting out of the white house and going out and getting his Public Opinion bath, that he needed to hear from the public. And i think i know senator durbin does that throughout his state of illinois. I know that senator murphy and the presiding officers chair does the same. You go out and you listen to people and youre talking to somebody making 8 or 8 9 and this minimum wage will increase their pay, probably doesnt have insurance because they cant afford it, thats probably eligible for the snap program because of their low income, and its the least we can do. These are people that work as hard as we do. We have jobs where we get a lot out of it. Were well paid, we have good benefits. We also have wonderful opportunities to serve the public. So many people in these jobs are barely making it, the jobs theyre on their feet all day of the woman in the diner making 3 or 4 an hour hoping that people tip her to get up to 7 or 8 or 9 an hour. Shes working hard. Shes working every bit as hard as my colleagues and i work yet she has so little to show for it. This is an opportunity for us, as people that care about this country and care about people who live in this country, the people that are doing such of the hard work, cleaning hotel rooms, cleaning our schools, making sure our schools are clean and the trash is taken o out, teaching our kids, people serving our food, people in these kinds of jobs so often, home care workers that are barely making it, the least we can do is make sure that the minimum wage gets them somewhat close to a decent lifestyle and standard of living, that we do better when theyre laid off with Unemployment Insurance and that they get a chance with the Affordable Care act so they can buy affordable Health Insurance because theyll get some help and they can they can draw food stamps if theyre eligible, if they need them on these low wages. And there is a just no reason that we cant, in the christmas spirit, if you will, do those things that have been done bipartisanly through senator dus and my lifetime. Mr. Durbin the senator raised something that brought to my mind the recent story that i read about the new pope, pope frances. What an administer man. As a catholic, i am just amazed at this man, his humility and his popularity with catholics and noncatholics alike, those of different tbai faith and those h no faith. He says in the evening he will take off his papal garb and go out in the streets of rome with a friend and meet with poor people and talk to them. I cant even envision in any mind what that must be like, but it sure tells moo me a lot abot him. When he gives a message to the world about income inequality, this is in the a political message for the United States or one country. It is more basic message about the values in life, whatever your religious belief or whether you have a religious belief. When he goes out, takes off the papal garb and goes out as an ordinary person, i hope it is a reminder to all of us that we need to keep in touch with all the people we represent, some who are not wealthy enough to have a lobbyist but deserve our representation just as much. Mr. Brown pope frances, as he does integrates these kinds of things into his life, he exhorted his parish priest, sort of like lincoln saying, i need my Public Opinion bath. Pope frances exhorted his parish priest to smell like the flock and to get among people and talk to them and learn from them and smell like the flock, be one of them. Ive not sign i am not catholic. I know my friend from illinois is. But this pope has really brought us to a different leveled and called on our better angels, if you will. Before yielding to senator durbin, i have one more foints maifnlmake. The belief by many ie only people who get the minimum wage are teenagers. Most are not teenagers. Most are supporting themselves and in many cases supporting a spouse or family or someone in their family thats disabled or a close friend. And thats the other reason. This is a wage that really people depend on to get along, not just spending money for a high school kid, but families. Families depend on it. Thats why it is so important that we in the next few weeks raise the minimum wage, tie this subminimum wage, tipped wig t wo that increase. I yield the floor to the senator from illinois. The presiding officer the assistant majority leader. Mr. Durbin mr. President , i would like to join my colleagues and people all across the world in expressing my condolences to the people of south africa on the passing of their great leader, Nelson Mandela. Nelson mandela ended his extraordinary ought biography entitled long walk to freedom with these words, i have walk walked that long twiewk freedom. I have mid trough faller fa tear. I have made missteps along the way. But i discovered the secret after climb the great hill, one only finds that there are many more littles to climb. Ive taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that ruer sounded me, to took back on the dishaifns come. But i can only rest for a moment but with freedom comes responsibilities, and dare not linger for my long walk is not yet ended. Sadly, pres