GOP Rep. Tells Constituent Who Asks About Raising The Minimum Wage To Get A Job
By Travis Waldron on Jul 5, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Rep. Bill Young (R-FL)
House Democrats earlier this month proposed increasing the federal minimum wage to $10 an hour, which would catch the minimum wage up to the buying power it had in 1968. The proposal hasnt gone anywhere, though, since Republicans who control the House of Representatives oppose any increase.
Asked by a constituent at a Fourth of July parade yesterday, Florida Rep. Bill Young (R) revealed that he is, predictably, opposed to the Democratic proposal. When a constituent asked him why he opposed boosting worker wages, Young replied simply, Get a job:
CONSTITUENT: Hi, Im (inaudible) how are you? Happy Fourth of July. Jesse Jackson, Jr. is passing a bill around to increase the minimum wage to 10 bucks and hour. Do you support that?
YOUNG: Probably not.
CONSTITUENT: 10 bucks, that would give us a living wage.
YOUNG: How about getting a job?
CONSTITUENT: I do have one.
YOUNG: Well, then why do you want that benefit? Get a job.
Watch it, via FLDemocracy.com:
Young seems to miss the point that the millions of minimum wage workers in this country already have jobs. What they want is a job that will pay them enough to actually live on, and Congress could afford them that benefit by making the minimum wage as strong as it was four decades ago.
