ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 24, 1996 TAG: 9605240080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News
NOTE: Lede
A bipartisan coalition in the House won approval Thursday for an increase in the minimum wage to $5.15, despite an attempt by conservative Republicans to exempt many small businesses.
The 266-162 vote was a key political victory for Democrats, who are competing with Republicans to show support for workers. Tuesday, the Democrats reluctantly helped Republicans pass a repeal of President Clinton's 4.3-cent gasoline tax increase.
But the proposed 90-cent wage increase faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, which is deadlocked over the best way to achieve the temporary tax repeal sought by Republicans and the pay raise favored by Democrats.
The increase was supported by 77 Republicans, 188 Democrats and one independent.
Virginia Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, and L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, voted for the increase, while Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, opposed it.
Clinton commended the House for ``voting to give millions of America's hardest workers a raise.'' He urged Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole to schedule a vote on a wage bill with no amendments before the Kansas Republican resigns next month to campaign full time for president.
``That is the way to honor our values of work, family, opportunity and responsibility,'' Clinton said.
The measure now moves to the Senate with a companion bill, passed Wednesday, that would provide about $7 billion in tax breaks over eight years to small businesses, which say they would bear an unfair share of the burden of the higher minimum wage.
The bill would raise the federal minimum wage by 50 cents on July 1 and another 40 cents a year later. The increase would be the first in the federally imposed minimum hourly wage since 1991, when it rose from $3.80 to $4.25 as the second step of a two-tier increase Congress approved in 1989.
With the buying power of the minimum wage at a 40-year low, advocates of the increase said it was necessary to help workers sustain a living. And they argued that raising the minimum wage was crucial to getting more people off welfare.
``If someone is willing to work in society, they ought to be able to make enough to live,'' said House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (left) and Houseby CNBMinority Whip David Bonier of Michigan talk with reporters after the
vote. color.