Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 4, 1995 TAG: 9502060031
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
At a Rose Garden ceremony, Clinton proposed raising the minimum wage by 90 cents an hour over two years, from $4.25 to $5.15.
``This has always been a bipartisan issue,'' he said, noting that the last increase was enacted in 1990 by a Republican president - George Bush - and lawmakers of both parties in a Democratic-controlled Congress.
Labor Secretary Robert Reich said a majority of Republicans - including House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas - voted for the increase the last time.
``If you did it before, why wouldn't you do it now?'' Reich asked.
But, in a sign of the difficulty the proposal will face, not one GOP legislator attended the ceremony.
House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, previously has vowed to fight the increase with ``every fiber of my being.''
Gingrich promised Clinton ``the courtesy of having some serious hearings'' but said he was ``personally very skeptical of it.'' He said he thought it would ``kill jobs, particularly ... for minority teen-agers'' and could widen the wage gap between the United States and Mexico.
He said Republicans would explore alternatives for helping low-wage workers such as enterprise zones offering corporations zero capital-gains taxes in exchange for locating factories in poor inner city and rural areas.
In the first hour of House floor action Friday, Democrats applauded and cheered one another as they delivered a series of coordinated one-minute speeches supporting Clinton and attacking Republicans.
``Democrats finally have a defining issue,'' said Rep. Bill Richardson, D-N.M.
They contrasted Republican opposition to the wage increase with the party's plans to trim welfare rolls and cut capital-gains taxes for stock and bond investors.
``The same Republican Party which reveres family values refuses a minimum-wage increase to the working mother trying to help her kids,'' said Rep. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. ``The same Republicans who promised welfare reform would rather build orphanages than create a minimum wage so people can lift themselves off of the dole.''
House Minority Whip David Bonior, D-Mich., seized on Gingrich's comments on the gap between U.S. and Mexican wages.
``Does the speaker and the Republican Party really believe we should tie American wages to Mexican wages, that the standard of living of American working families should be driven down to the standard of a living wage in Mexico?'' he asked
And Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., belittled the handful of Republicans who sleep in their offices because they say they cannot afford, on a $133,600 a year salary, to maintain homes in Washington and yet are unwilling to raise wages for people earning $8,840 a year.
``Imagine how those people feel ... when they hear congressmen ... say they can't afford to live in Washington, they must live in their offices,'' she said.
But Republicans argued a higher minimum wage can actually hurt the people it is intended to help by foreclosing job opportunities.
``Raising the minimum wage will only shut the door on those trying to get started,'' said Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan., chairwoman of the Labor and Human Resources Committee.
by CNB