ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 16, 1995 TAG: 9512180057
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Republican Congress intent on moving people from welfare to work has a moral responsibility to raise the minimum wage, Labor Secretary Robert Reich asserted Friday.
``It has to do with whether we as a society are willing to reward work,'' Reich told the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee. ``When we are shredding the safety net for so many people - why is there opposition?''
The Clinton administration wants to raise the current minimum wage of $4.25 an hour to $4.70 next summer and to $5.15 by July 1997. The minimum wage has remained unchanged for six years.
Reich said the minimum wage has eroded because the cost of everything else has risen much faster. The current $4.25 an hour is effectively the 1982 level when adjusted for inflation, he said.
``We want people to work, but we don't want to pay them,'' Reich said.
Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to any increase, which they say will put more people out of work as companies shed low-skill employees to save money.
Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan., said workers need improved job training, child care and health care programs more than a small increase in the minimum wage,
``For me, the real question is, how do we get people into the system?'' said Kassebaum, who chairs the Labor Committee. ``This will give those who need that security the ability to enter and then rise in the work force as they gain the skills to do so.''
Kassebaum said Republicans should not be portrayed as heartless because they have different views on tackling the problem.
``It should not be taken as something that is coldblooded on the part of Republicans because we don't want to raise the minimum wage.'' she said.
She suggested that states can add their own increases to the minimum wage, as 11 already have done. But Reich said the federal government signed a contract with workers when the first minimum wage law passed in 1938.
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB