Summer Lee Asks Expert: ‘Is $7.25 Enough For A Worker To Take Care Of Their Families?’

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During a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing before the congressional recess, Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) questioned witnesses about wage inequity and living standards.

Transcript

00:00Hello, Pennsylvania. Ms. Lee from Pennsylvania.

00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do want to say that it is a little interesting of a choice

00:09to be holding a hearing on dismantling protections for equal pay on Equal Pay Day.

00:15But we need Equal Pay Day because wage laws in our country were never designed to be fair.

00:20From the very beginning, they have reflected the choices that we make, the choices about who we value,

00:25whose labor we under or fairly pay, and who we leave behind.

00:31And for generations, black workers, brown workers, women, and especially black women,

00:34have been trapped at the bottom of that hierarchy.

00:37We see that clearly in today's economy, where the people holding up entire industries,

00:42nursing home aides, restaurant servers, grocery store workers, are often the lowest paid.

00:48Those are overwhelmingly women. These are disproportionately women of color.

00:52And they are working full-time jobs that still don't cover the rent, food, child care, their basic needs.

01:00Mr. Stettner, in your testimony, you shared a report from the Institute for Women's Policy Research

01:04finding that women earn about $0.83 on the dollar compared to men.

01:08And for black women, of course, it's closer to $0.67.

01:10For Latinas, closer to $0.58 on the dollar compared to white men.

01:16So when we talk about modernizing wage laws, we can't afford to leave this context out.

01:20As long as skyrocketing corporate profits and poverty wages exist side by side in our country,

01:26our communities will continue to suffer needlessly.

01:28So we've grown accustomed to the idea that some people are bound to be wealthy

01:32and others are bound to live paycheck by paycheck.

01:35And the billionaires in the White House are counting on us staying accustomed to that idea.

01:40This should come as no surprise given that our country and my home state of Pennsylvania

01:44has been stuck at a minimum wage of $7.25 for the last 16 years.

01:50Mr. Stettner, do you believe that $7.25 is enough for a worker to take care of their families?

01:56And will we ever address the wage inequity if that remains the federal wage floor?

02:00The $7.25 minimum wage, I think everyone with common sense can know.

02:07Even on a full-time job, you won't be able to support yourself.

02:12And that's, besides the most of you are trying to even support a family on that little bit amount of money per week.

02:18So my Democratic colleagues and I have supported legislation to raise the minimum wage

02:21and institute automatic increases based on the cost of living.

02:24How will those types of proposals benefit working people?

02:28So it means that working people can know each year, as the price of living goes up, that their wages will go up.

02:37In many parts of the country, January 1st is a celebration day because states have put indexing in place.

02:43And once Congress does that, we won't have to be debating and keeping as a token or a chip

02:48of whether the minimum wage for the American worker goes up each year.

02:52Thank you. And I can tell you from my time working on the fight for $15 that $15 is not enough.

02:56We need a wage floor that reflects the real cost of living.

03:00Workers shouldn't have to cobble together multiple jobs just to stay afloat.

03:04We also need to talk about the subminimum wage.

03:06While Republicans in the House are fighting to give over $4.5 trillion in tax rates to billionaires

03:10and large corporations, tens of thousands of workers with disabilities are being paid as little as $0.25 an hour.

03:16Mr. Stetner, can you start by explaining the legal basis of separate treatment for workers by disability?

03:22Section 14C of the FLSA allows people with disabilities to work in what are called typically sheltered

03:28workplaces. And it's the employer that gets to see, well, based on your ability, how much

03:33can I pay you? Which is, that's why people have been paid as little as $0.25 per hour.

03:37Only certain workplaces are allowed to operate in this way under Section 14C through certificates.

03:43People with disabilities do not want to work in segregated workplaces.

03:47They want to live and work in their community. That's why the number of certificates have gone

03:52down each year to just only about 500 across the country. And many states are already outlawing

03:58this practice. The Department of Labor has done the right step. We've issued a proposed rule

04:04to cease issuing any more certificates. And the idea that the Trump administration won't follow

04:09through. And rather would say, let's put more workers with disabilities in this discriminatory

04:14environment in 2025 is something it's hard to contemplate.

04:20And thank you. And just in the interest of time, I think there's so much more that we can talk about.

04:24The subminimum wage, right? Separate from the wages for those workers with disabilities, but those

04:31workers who work in service industries, restaurant workers, folks who we know live off of tipped wages,

04:36where they see their employer able to shift the burden to the consumer. But we also know that those

04:41jobs are more likely to come with sexual workplace harassment. We haven't talked about the benefits

04:48cliff, where we know so many folks who work for lower wages recognize the simple math that if they

04:55get too little of an increase, but not enough, then they would lose the benefits that keep them in their

05:00homes or keep them with health care. Those are all issues that we have to take much more seriously.

05:05So I thank you all so much for your time and for allowing me to join today. And I yield back.

05:11Mr. Grothman from Wisconsin.

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