Quotes About Economy

President Obama has made a minimum wage increase a focal point of his economic agenda.

We have to raise the minimum wage.

If the opponents of an increase in the minimum wage were correct, then every time you fly to Seattle, you've got to bring a bagged lunch because there shouldn't be any restaurants because they should have all have gone out of business as a result of raising the minimum wage.

My priorities are a fair trade policy in this country, increasing the minimum wage, going after the drug companies for the way that they charge and their whole pricing structure that have put absolutely amazing drugs out of reach for so many Americans.

In the general economy, you get government involved in making market decisions - first of all, they're going to get it wrong. For a minimum wage, you will actually reduce the number of jobs available.

What I want to do is create jobs that make the minimum wage irrelevant.

Obviously, we want people to be paid a wage that could help make ends meet, but when you increase artificially the cost of labor to do a job, then oftentimes, those jobs will just go away.

By raising the minimum wage in California, 700,000 people are going to lose their jobs. There are a lot of opportunities for companies to prosper in Florida and compete here, and that's what I'm going after.

Middle-income wage earners have essentially had no pay increases since 2000.

I have serious concerns with the discussion around minimum wage because it drives up costs, and it could harm jobs.

One of the biggest disagreements between Sen. Hagan and I - I don't believe we should be building an economy that's founded on making ends meet on minimum wage. It's impossible; it's a stepping stone.

Let me just go on record and say this: I am not for decreasing the minimum wage.

Incremental increases in the minimum wage won't address the underlying skills and investment gaps in Illinois.

I think we've got to be competitive here in Illinois. It's critical we're competitive. We're hurting our economy by having the minimum wage above the national. We've got to move back to the national.

Increasing minimum wage doesn't build a stronger economy.

To reward work, to grow the middle class and strengthen the economy, to give millions of Americans the respect they deserve... It's time to raise the minimum wage.

I think that people need a livable wage.

If you do not ensure that people are being paid a living wage, then you are going to have people who rely on government assistance. It is that simple.

In the 1950s and 1960s, an explosion of great corporate jobs, together with a restricted supply of labor, produced healthy wage growth.

There are many signs of the value created by all the exchange that takes place in a city. We see it in productivity and wage data. We also see it in the increase in the value of the land.

I want to make sure that we have a tax code that makes sure that everyone benefits, including those in poverty and those middle-income wage earners and those that have already lived the American dream as well as making sure that everyone can receive the benefits of a robust economy and not just the select few.

I think people are fed up with struggling to make ends meet. It's so easy to find yourself in a position of not being able to pay the bills for most Americans when we're watching the cost of housing and child care and health insurance skyrocket without an increase in wage.

Immigrants aren't the reason wages haven't gone up enough; those decisions are made in the boardrooms that too often put quarterly earnings over long-term returns.

Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.