Sen. Warren on ‘A Fighting Chance’ for Every American
JUDY WOODRUFF: What’s an example of one of the ways you think the working class, the middle class in this country has it worse today than they used to?
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: Oh, let me — I will give you an example right off the top.
So, my daddy had had a heart attack when I was little. I was 12. My three brothers were already off in the military by this point. We had a long period of time with no income coming in. The bills piled up. We lost the family station wagon. We were right on the edge of losing our home.
My mother was 50 years old, a stay-at-home mom, when she pulled her best dress out of the closet, put on her high heels, and walked over to the Sears and got a minimum wage job. In the 1960s, a minimum wage job would keep a family of three afloat.
And that’s what it did for us, and it saved our home. Today, a minimum wage job will not keep a mother and one baby out of poverty. That is a shift. We have lost that protection even for those working right at the bottom of the incomes.