AFSCME - GOP Demand For Billions in Corporate Tax Breaks Is Political Ploy To Muddy Minimum Wage Debate

WASHINGTON — Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO, issued the following statement today after the Senate passed minimum wage legislation loaded with corporate tax breaks.

"Republicans are demanding billions in corporate tax breaks in exchange for a $2 bump in the minimum wage. As they play their political games, low-income workers continue to wait for their first raise in a decade.

"Business doesn't need another break, but the working poor do. If the minimum wage had grown at the same rate as CEO pay since 1990, our lowest-wage workers would be earning $23.03 an hour. Instead, 37 million Americans are living in poverty today, including 13 million children. That's 5.3 million more than when George W. Bush took office.

"Making sure that minimum-wage workers earn enough to buy groceries and pay rent should not be a partisan issue. The Senate bill is full of poison pills intended to delay or defeat a long-overdue rate increase. Republican Senators are afraid of an up-or-down vote on a clean bill because they know it has overwhelming public support as well as majority support in both houses of Congress.

"The American people have spoken on the minimum wage issue. Republican leaders had better start listening to them, or their lopsided November defeat is going to be a preview of what's to come in 2008."

AFSCME’s 1.6 million members provide the vital services that make America happen. With members in hundreds of different occupations – from nurses to corrections officers, child care providers to sanitation workers – AFSCME advocates for fairness in the workplace, excellence in public services and prosperity and opportunity for all working families.

AFSCME is the largest union for workers in the public service with 1.4 million members nationwide. AFSCME organizes for economic and social justice in the workplace and advocates for working families through political action and legislative advocacy. AFSCME represents a diverse group of service and health care workers in the public and private sectors, including nurses, EMTs, bus drivers, child care providers, custodians and librarians.