See Your 90 Cents, Raise You 10 Cents

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, April 18) -- Bucking party leaders, 20 renegade Republicans are backing a $1 increase in the minimum wage, ten cents more than the Clinton Administration's proposal.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who previously opposed a hike, has notified House members they should expect a vote in the near future, which will almost certainly result in a higher wage.

Now the minimum wage stands at $4.25 an hour. "All of us believe that people who work a 40-hour work week ought to earn a wage they can live on," declared Rep. Jack Quinn (R-N.Y.), who was joined by 13 other Republicans presenting their bill which calls for two fifty-cent increases.

President Bill Clinton called for raising the minimum wage in his State of the Union address last January and in recent weeks Democratic senators have tried to force a vote. Though Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kan.) has in the past supported wage hikes, he's now blocking Democratic efforts in the Senate.

Dole's taking a drubbing from his rivals. "The Republican leadership is stiffing the majority of the American people by refusing to raise the minimum wage," charged vice president Al Gore. "(They) won't even allow a vote."

Many Republicans, joined by some Democrats and a majority of professional economists, have long maintained that raising the minimum wage is counter-productive since, the argument goes, businesses are unable to hire as many workers. Most hurt, they contend, are black teenagers.

But the Clinton Administration is citing recent studies in New Jersey and California which found no correlation between higher minimum wages and job loss. Opponents say those studies were flawed.

What nobody disputes is that the issue is a clear political loser for minimum wage opponents. Public opinion polls show widespread support for a wage hike, and in an election year, Republicans may simply not have the stomach for this politically-doomed fight.

The last time the minimum wage was increased was April 1, 1991. It went from $3.80 an hour to its current level $4.25.

See Your 90 Cents, Raise You 10 Cents

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