House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is adding the minimum wage to the list of items too urgent to wait until after the November midterm elections.
“It is long past the time for Congress to raise the minimum wage,” the Democratic leader said Friday, saying that “so urgent is this, I think we should come back before the election to pass the minimum wage.”
Pelosi’s comments came during a conference call marking “National Minimum Wage Day” Friday, which is the date, 10-10, that matches Democrats’ proposed minimum wage of $10.10. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25.
“As we observe 10.10 day, what better way to observe it than for the leadership to call us back today,” Pelosi said. “This can happen very quickly. The legislation is there, the need is urgent, the support is overwhelming, and the president would sign the bill immediately.”
Pelosi added, “it would also be helpful for [House Speaker John Boehner] to call us back to vote on the war, another subject that the American people want to see Congress act upon, and act upon even before the election.”
Congress left Washington for the campaign trail in September without voting on authorization for President Obama’s campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Boehner has said that a vote on the campaign would wait until after the lame duck period following the elections.
Voting on authorization for air strikes is popular among voters. So is raising the minimum wage, which has been a key part of Democrats’ platform heading into the fall election.
Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, also on the call, said he has been traveling the country listening to the stories of people earning the minimum wage. “For people working minimum wage, every day is national minimum wage day,” he said, adding that “every day is filled with struggle and anxiety, as they make unconscionable choices between whether to buy a gallon of milk or a gallon of gas.”
Later in the call, Perez said, “There’s no dignity in a 40- or 50-hour workweek when at the end of the week, you go to the food pantry to get your food.
“That’s why we’ve been fighting so hard for this 10.10 bill.”
