#TBT: President Clinton Raises The Minimum Wage, Reforms Welfare

 

     Bill Clinton's loss of control of Congress from 1995 to 2000 didn't prevent him from implementing some major reforms to help middle-class Americans through both the use of executive power and through compromises with GOP lawmakers.

     On August 22nd, 1996, President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. While the law incorporated conservative goals by placing a limit on legal immigrants receiving benefits and by imposing a five-year maximum, it reduced the number of people on welfare while continuing to decrease the number of impoverished people, increasing effectiveness with state oversight, providing increases in the child care benefits, and enhancing enforcement of child support.

     For the people who were working, things got quite a bit easier. The day before, President Clinton signed into law a 21 percent increase in the minimum wage, or 90 cents, from $4.25 an hour to $5.15 an hour by September 1st, 1997. That would be the equivalent of raising the federal minimum wage to $8.80 in 2021. The law provided an immediate raise to more than 11 million Americans.

     President Clinton also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, the HOPE Tax Credit, and Lifetime Learning Tax Credit, providing billions of dollars in tax exemptions for working class families.

     President Clinton is often criticized for his economic policy. However, during his presidency, the average percent of family income going to taxes, the overall poverty rate, and the child poverty rate all fell by 25 percent, the number of Americans who owned stock increased by 40 percent, the rate of home ownership surpassed two out of three Americans for the first time in history, and the median family income increased by nearly 30 percent.