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Hakeem Jeffries on Jobs

 

 


Voted NO on allowing compensatory time off for working overtime.

Congressional Summary:

Opponent's Argument for voting No:

Reference: Working Families Flexibility Act; Bill H.R.1406 ; vote number 13-HV137 on Apr 9, 2013

Raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by 2016.

Jeffries co-sponsored Minimum Wage Fairness Act

Congressional summary: Increases the federal minimum wage for employees to:

  1. $8.20 an hour beginning 6 months after enactment
  2. $9.15 an hour beginning 1 year later,
  3. $10.10 an hour beginning 2 years later, and
  4. an amount determined by increases in the Consumer Price Index, beginning annually after 3 years.

Proponent's argument in favor (RaiseTheMinimumWage.com): The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour remains decades out of date, and the federal minimum wage for tipped workers--$2.13 per hour--has not increased in over 20 years. The minimum wage of the past provided significantly more buying power than it does today. The minimum wage of $1.60 an hour in 1968 would be $10.56 today when adjusted for inflation.

Opponent's argument against: (Neil King in Wall Street Journal, Feb. 24, 2014): The CBO concluded that a jump in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour could eliminate 500,000 jobs. For Republicans, the report provided ammunition that a higher minimum wage would kill jobs. Democrats pointed to the CBO's findings that the higher wage would lift 900,000 people out of poverty. But both sides missed a key finding: That a smaller hike from the current $7.25 to $9.00 an hour would cause almost no pain, and still lift 300,000 people out of poverty while raising the incomes of 7.6 million people.Congressional Budget Office report:: Once fully implemented, the $10.10 option would reduce total employment by about 500,000 workers, or 0.3%. Some people earning slightly more than $10.10 would also have higher earnings, due to the heightened demand for goods and services. The increased earnings for low-wage workers would total $31 billion. Accounting for all increases and decreases, overall real income would rise by $2 billion.

Source: S.1737 & H.R.1010 14-H1010 on Mar 6, 2013

Raise minimum wage to 15% above poverty level.

Jeffries co-sponsored H.R.122

Congressional Summary:

  1. The federal minimum wage should be adjusted every four years so that a person working for it may earn, as a minimum, an annual income at least 15% higher than the federal poverty threshold for a family of four;
  2. it should be set at a level high enough to allow two full-time minimum wage workers to earn an income above the national housing wage; and
  3. Congress, or any local or state government, may establish a higher minimum wage.

Opponents reasons for voting NAY: (Time magazine, 9/5/13): The Washington DC council sent a bill to the mayor's desk that would require large retailers like Walmart and Target to pay its workers a "living wage" of $12.50 per hour--significantly higher than the District's $8.25 per hour minimum wage. Here are common misunderstandings about the DC bill and minimum wage laws in general: