Standing before a group of working Americans and saying that it's about "simple dignity," Vice President Biden called for increasing the federal minimum wage during a White House event on June 25.
"No man or woman who works 40 hours a week should go home and look at their kids and say, 'Honey, we got to apply for food stamps,'" Biden said.
The event commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the law that established a national minimum wage. Earlier, acting Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris led a discussion with workers who told him of the economic hardships they face and how they would benefit from the Administration's proposal to increase the minimum wage from its current rate of $7.25 per hour to $9 per hour by 2015.
The workers said they would spend the extra income on groceries, car repairs and their children, a point echoed by the vice president. A minimum wage increase "ripples all through the economy," Biden said, benefitting the country as a whole as those workers spend their additional income on necessities such as food and utility bills.
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