Minimum Wage Quotes

The real minimum wage is zero.

A job should lift workers out of poverty, not keep them in it.

The only way to grow the economy in a way that benefits the bottom 90 percent is to change the structure of the economy. At the least, this requires stronger unions and a higher minimum wage.

I was making almost minimum wage on 'The Young and the Restless.' But it was my first job, so I accepted my first quote. I had a great time on it, and it obviously led me to better things.

So what are the effects of increasing minimum wages? Any Econ 101 student can tell you the answer: The higher wage reduces the quantity of labor demanded, and hence leads to unemployment.

Remember that the minimum wage law provides no jobs; it only outlaws them; and outlawed jobs are the inevitable result.

The Republicans believe in the minimum wage -- the more the minimum, the better.

I want to applaud those workers rallying to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. I believe strongly that a great nation will not survive when so few have so much and so many have so little. Every worker in America should be given respect, dignity and the wages and benefits they need to take care of their family.

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.

Most poor people earn more than minimum wage when they are working; their problem is not low wages. The problem comes when they are not working.

The minimum wage is mostly an entry-level wage for young people.

Unskilled and inexperienced workers are the ones most often deprived of employment opportunities by increases in the minimum wage.

No family gets rich from earning the minimum wage. In fact, the current minimum wage does not even lift a family out of poverty.

But can we please stop insisting that if low-wage workers earn a little bit more, unemployment will skyrocket and the economy will collapse? There is no evidence for it. The most insidious thing about trickle-down economics is not the claim that if the rich get richer, everyone is better off. It is the claim made by those who oppose any increase in the minimum wage that if the poor get richer, that will be bad for the economy. This is nonsense.

Luxury, like a minimum wage, is a relationship; it changes as we change.

I thought in this country, the best social program was a job. Yet minimum wage jobs arent paying enough to keep families out of poverty

The liberal paradigm of regulation and license has led to a society where an 18-year-old girl has the right to public fornication in a pornographic movie - but only if she is paid the minimum wage.

You get paid more at McDonald's than you do under the existing minimum wage.

I have not heard almost anybody suggest that raising the minimum wage to the level we have in Vermont has been an impediment to our economy which is doing reasonably well ... If somebody is going to work that person has got to receive at least a wage that they can go out and live with dignity on. That's an extremely important point.

At the current $5.15 an hour, the federal minimum wage has become a poverty wage. A full-time worker with one child lives below the official poverty line.

Today a minimum wage earner has to work a day and a half just to pay for a full tank of gas. That is simply shameful.

A market where chief executive officers make 262 times that of the average worker and 821 times that of the minimum-wage worker is not a market that is working well. And it is surely not working well enough to build a solid middle class.

Ohio is one of only two states that have a minimum wage below the federal level of $5.15 an hour.

The bottom line is that five million low-income Americans working full time for minimum wage, deserve a raise.

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

I remember the $0.05 hamburger and a $0.40-per-hour minimum wage, so I've seen a tremendous amount of inflation in my lifetime. Did it ruin the investment climate? I think not.

Anyone who's tried to pay a heating bill, fill a prescription, or simply buy groceries knows all too well that the current minimum wage does not cut the mustard.

I'll commit suicide before I vote on a clean minimum-wage bill.

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

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

The beauty of our democracy lies in the American value of equality: if you vote, you have a seat at the table. If you speak, you have a chance to persuade others. A billionaire and a minimum wage earner have the same power at the ballot box.

The minimum wage was due for an increase, but it was important that we offset its cost to small businesses.

Once again, the Republicans in the Senate have rejected an increase in the minimum wage. They support tax breaks for multi-millionaires, but they oppose helping the working poor to earn a decent income.

Raising the minimum wage a lot across the board would make a big difference. It's not the only thing, but it's an indispensable part of solving the problem.

Pay minimum wage, you get minimum work. Nobody seems to get that.

The American people want to raise the minimum wage. Every poll tells us that. That bill will not get to the floor of the Senate. The American people want to ask the rich to pay more in taxes. But the legislation that will get to the floor is tax breaks for billionaires.

What is the source of power of musicians who are financially browbeaten, most of whom work for minimum wage or less? Musicians who cannot even afford to buy tickets to operas or concerts in which they themselves perform?

When I was a student at Princeton University, I was working part time in a grocery store. I saw an ad for teachers of a prep course. I don't remember what it paid, but it was easily double or triple the minimum wage.

We have to make the economy fairer. That starts with raising the national minimum wage and also guarantee, finally, equal pay for women's work.

The first to come and the last to go, working for that minimum wage.

If you raise the minimum wage, you're going to make people more expensive than a machine.

No person can maximize the American Dream on the minimum wage.

This is a sensible response to employer concerns that the minimum wage is starting to have a damaging impact on competitiveness.

Giving a minimum wage reduces inequality significantly.

Raising the minimum wage is very efficient. Everybody's on the same playing field, it's a very simple rule, it doesn't require a lot of administration, you don't have to negotiate anything. It just is what it is.

We try to pay a man what he is worth and we are not inclined to keep a man who is not worth more than the minimum wage.

I want us to raise the national minimum wage, because people who live in poverty should not - who work full-time should not still be in poverty.

Teddy Roosevelt supported a progressive income tax. If I am sitting pretty and you've got a waitress who is making minimum wage plus tips, and I can afford it and she can't, what's the big deal for me to say, 'I'm going to pay a little bit more'? That is neighborliness.

Raising the minimum wage, as President Obama proposed in his State of the Union address, tends to be more popular with the general public than with economists.

Emotional appeals about working families trying to get by on $4.25 an hour are hard to resist.