Working for Free to Raise Minimum Wage: Interning in the Capital City!
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Today we attended a press conference at the U.S. Capitol Building with Senators Reid, Kennedy, Clinton, Schumer, Durbin and Rabbi Michael Namath, Program Director of the Religious Action Center. The speeches were not only informative on the topic of minimum wage but they gave us a chance to really see the democratic process in action.
Supporters are fighting for the minimum wage to increase from the current $5.15 an hour to the proposed $7.25.
Senator Kennedy pointed out that a family in the state of Missouri that is living at the minimum wage would spend 146% of their salary on living expenses. This is before accounting for the costs of medicine, tuition, clothing and child care. Senator Reid showed his support for these efforts by tearing up a mock congressional pay raise check!
For us, this experience was not only informative on the issue of minimum wage but one of our most memorable experiences thus far as Machon Kaplan Interns at the Religious Action Center. Not only have we now watched members of our government in action, but we got to sit just over eight feet from Hillary Clinton, Edward Kennedy, and other senators. This experience will go down in our books as the first of many awesome experiences that we expect to come from being in Washington, D.C. during this important time in our nation’s history.