THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, February 14, 1995             TAG: 9502140282
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: BY ESTES THOMPSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: FAYETTEVILLE                       LENGTH: Short :   42 lines

POOR FARE BETTER ON WELFARE THAN ON MINIMUM WAGE, CLAYTON SAYS

Poor people can count well enough to know that they're better off collecting welfare benefits than working for the current minimum wage, Rep. Eva Clayton said Monday.

Clayton told a news conference and community forum at Fayetteville State University that Democrats supporting President Clinton's plan to increase the minimum wage will have difficulty with the Republican-dominated Congress.

``The best way to have welfare reform is to have a job at a decent salary,'' the 1st District Democrat said.

``People can file for welfare and do better'' than the current minimum wage, she said. ``People may be poor, but they're not necessarily dumb. They can count.''

Single workers making below $7,360 a year are considered poor, according to 1994 statistics from the federal government. For each additional person in a family, the poverty rate rises by $2,480 a year.

A person earning minimum wage for 40 hours of work, 52 weeks a year, will gross $8,840 under the current $4.25 an hour wage. Under the proposed minimum of $5.15 an hour, that person would make $10,712 a year.

Clinton has proposed raising the minimum wage over a two-year period. Republicans in Congress have countered that an increase would hurt the economy and cost people their jobs.

Several businessmen endorsed what Clayton said.

Larry Shaw, president of the 600-employee Shaw Foods, said raising the minimum wage was ``the right thing to do.

``We owe these people something,'' Shaw said. ``This country has to move forward. If we go off and leave a class of people behind, we will erode the middle class bit by bit.''

KEYWORDS: MINIMUM WAGE by CNB