Greg Gianforte Quotes

The current minimum wage simply is not supporting Ohio's working families.

Does anyone really believe it is possible to make even the most basic ends meet on $5.15 an hour?

One of the biggest disagreements between Sen. Hagan and I - I don't believe we should be building an economy that's founded on making ends meet on minimum wage. It's impossible; it's a stepping stone.

How can anyone live off of minimum wage?

People can't live on $7.50 an hour.

No family gets rich from earning the minimum wage. In fact, the current minimum wage does not even lift a family out of poverty.

In New Orleans, where I'm from, the average household income, with two working parents, two kids, a dog and a little fence is $16,000 a year, so $15,000 for a movie sounds pretty good.

Raising the minimum wage means raising the living wage - and that's good news for Ohio.

Thousands of Ohio families are going deeper and deeper in debt just trying to pay their heating bills, fill prescriptions, and buy groceries. The current minimum wage is simply not enough.

When we talk about the kind of folks whose lives will be made better by raising the minimum wage, we're not talking about a couple teenagers earning extra spending money to supplement their allowance. We're talking about providers and breadwinners. Working Americans with bills to pay and mouths to feed.

The increase in inequality in income is a longtime trend, but the pressure on middle- and low-income workers is going up rapidly. Especially if they live in an area where there are high housing and gas prices, like California.

These Americans are among the working poor with full-time jobs earning $5.15 an hour. Millions fall into this boat, even more when you consider that the poverty line has not been adequately adjusted to reflect the true level of poverty in this country.

The bottom line is that five million low-income Americans working full time for minimum wage, deserve a raise.

The sad fact is that in communities such as mine, the minimum wage is the maximum wage.

Too many jobs don't pay enough to get by, let alone get ahead.

What we're seeing is that even in high poverty neighborhoods, the average cost of renting is quickly approaching the total income of welfare recipients and low wage workers.

America's vast population of working poor can only get so poor before even Walmart is out of reach.

The average family earning minimum wage spends 141 percent of their income struggling to meet basic needs - food, shelter, clothing.

My mother saved our home with a minimum wage job. But in the 1960s, a minimum wage job would support a family of three above the poverty line. Not today. Not even close. I understood right then that people can work hard, they can play by the rules, and they can still take a hard smack.

Working-class Americans have waited too long, close to a decade in fact, for an increase in the minimum wage. This has been the second longest period without a pay raise since the Federal minimum wage law was first enacted in 1938.

Mr. Speaker, the time for an increase in the minimum wage has not just arrived; it is long overdue.

Anyone who's tried to pay a heating bill, fill a prescription, or simply buy groceries knows all too well that the current minimum wage does not cut the mustard.

President Obama has made a minimum wage increase a focal point of his economic agenda.

No person can maximize the American Dream on the minimum wage.

Today a minimum wage earner has to work a day and a half just to pay for a full tank of gas. That is simply shameful.