Robert J. Garagiola Quotes

I've been very outspoken that the minimum wage needs to rise.

Raising the minimum wage is the right thing to do, but it's a popular thing to do as well.

The minimum wage should be a living wage.

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.

We have to raise the minimum wage.

I was on the committee that helped raise the minimum wage here in Seattle. I introduced a statewide bill to raise the minimum wage in Washington state my first year in the state senate, and I really believe that raising the federal minimum wage, while not the answer to everything, addresses a lot of the issues at the very bottom.

6.6 million people will benefit from a rise in the minimum wage.

The minimum wage now in our country, I think we've set that, so there are a lot of people have benefited from it in our country, but I think we ought to review how much it ought to be, and whether or not we ought to have increases in the minimum wage.

The minimum wage was enacted in 1937 during the Great Depression and it has been increased 16 times. It's a well-established economic policy to help families.

It has now been over 7 years since Congress last raised the minimum wage to its current level of $5.15 per hour. Since that last increase, Congress's failure to adjust the wage for inflation has reduced the purchasing power of the minimum wage to record low levels.

I thought I was answering a question that I had heard that was about increasing the minimum wage - would I consider that. So let me just go on record and say this: I am not for decreasing the minimum wage. I did not say that and that is not something I would consider.

Congress has not raised the minimum wage since 1997. The minimum wage is now at its lowest level in 50 years adjusted for inflation.

There are very few people at the decision-making table to argue for minimum-wage workers. Very few people.

The minimum wage is important for many nations

We must ensure American workers get the long-overdue raise they deserve.

My question becomes, 'If we want to empower people with higher pay, there are probably better ways to do it that are more enduring than simply a federal mandate on wage level.'

Minimum wage laws have never worked in terms of having the middle class attain more prosperity.

I will advocate moving the Illinois minimum wage back to the national minimum wage.

I believe in $15 as a minimum wage.

I'm more concerned about maximum wages, not minimum wages.

Our minimum wage is too low. So we need to raise it.

The state of Alaska has a minimum wage which is higher than the federal level because our state leaders have made that determination.

Most arguments for instituting or raising a minimum wage are based on fairness and redistribution. Even if workers are getting a competitive wage, many of us are deeply disturbed that some hard-working families still have very little.

During Seattle's successful campaign for a $15 an hour minimum wage, our opponents would sometimes roll their eyes and snort, 'If $15 is so good, why not $50?' It was a straw man argument: Nobody was proposing a $50 minimum wage; it would have been too high, and we said so.

It is time this Congress listened to the American people and minimum-wage workers, and it is time that we act.