The Nation - News from March 15, 1989

A House committee rejected President Bush’s minimum-wage proposal and instead joined a Senate panel in backing legislation calling for a bigger increase. The Democrat-controlled House Education and Labor Committee voted 22 to 13 along party lines to reject Bush’s call to raise the minimum from $3.35 an hour to $4.25 by 1992 while allowing employers to pay new workers $3.35 an hour for their first six months on the job. Then, by the same vote, the committee sent to the full House legislation to increase the minimum wage to $4.65 an hour through three annual increases. The legislation, without the “training wage” that Bush says must be included, is almost identical to a bill the Senate Labor Committee passed last week.