Clinton Signs 90-Cent Increase In Minium Wage

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Aug. 20) -- The first minimum wage increase in five years was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, giving 10 million Americans a raise just before the November presidential election.

The law also includes tax breaks for millions of other Americans and reinstates a 10 percent federal tax on airline tickets.

"This bill says to the working people of America that if you're willing to take responsibility and go to work, your work will be honored," Clinton said at a campaign-style ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House.

Clinton signed the bill at the desk of Frances Perkins, Franklin Roosevelt's Labor Secretary, and with children of minimum-wage workers looking on. Vice President Al Gore, AFL- CIO President John Sweeney and Cabinet officials and lawmakers applauded.

The bill, passed by Congress on Aug. 2, raises the current $4.25 federal minimum wage by 90 cents an hour in two stages. The rate will rise to $4.75 an hour Oct. 1, then will increase to $5.15 on Sept. 1, 1997.

The measure partly excludes workers who receive tips. Their employers will have to pay a minimum of $2.13 an hour, the same as before, and provide more only if the employees don't collect enough tips to earn the new minimum rate.

The law's "training wage" feature holds the hourly rate at $4.25 for employees younger than 20 during their first 90 days on the job.

Other provisions of the bill will:

Provide more generous equipment write-offs for small businesses.
Enact a new type of simplified pension plan for companies employing 100 or fewer workers.
Provide a $5,000 credit for adoptions through 2001 and a $6,000 permanent credit for domestic adoptions of hard-to-place children.
Permit homemakers to contribute $2,000 to Individual Retirement Accounts, the same as spouses working outside the home.
Retroactively reinstate the $5,250 exclusion for employer-provided tuition and extend it through June 1996 for graduate-level tuition and May 1997 for undergraduate tuition.

The legislation pays for the new tax breaks by phasing out some existing breaks, including one benefiting manufacturers operating in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories.

It also reinstates the 10 percent excise tax on airline tickets. Travelers can avoid the tax on trips later this year by purchasing their tickets during the next seven days. However, most U.S. airlines last week raised their domestic ticket prices almost 10 percent.

The money from the airline tax, which expired at the end of last year, is used to fund airport improvements and provides part of the Federal Aviation Administration's budget.

Clinton Signs 90-Cent Increase In Minium Wage

Related Stories: