Bush Renews Veto Threat on Minimum Wage Issue

President Bush today renewed his threat to veto legislation raising the minimum wage beyond $4.25 an hour as Senate Democrats moved to quickly pass a bill raising the wage floor to $4.55.

House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.), who met with Bush and relayed his comments to reporters, said the President “made it abundantly clear there will be absolutely no flexibility, not one penny, not one deviation” from his position on the minimum wage.

Bush met with Republican congressional leaders hours before the Senate opened debate on the legislation.

The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) would raise the hourly minimum from $3.35 to $4.65 by January, 1992, and contains no provision allowing a lower wage for new workers.

But Kennedy aides said he would offer an amendment making his measure identical to the House bill passed two weeks ago, which has a final wage of $4.55 and would allow employers to pay new entrants in the job market a “sub-minimum” for two months.

Bush has insisted that employers be allowed to pay any new employees a sub-minimum “training wage” for six months. The GOP leaders who met with Bush said he also reiterated his opposition to shortening that time frame.

Another of the Republicans with whom Bush met, Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, told reporters afterward that “the message that was given to the President by the Senate (GOP) leadership was that we’re going to stand with him on the minimum wage issue. And we urged him not to back down from his commitment to $4.25 and the six-month training wage.”