Clinton Reminds GOP of Bush’s Move, Asks Minimum Pay Hike

Insisting that a person cannot live on $4.25 an hour, President Clinton invoked history and statistics Saturday to try to persuade balking Republicans to back an increase in the minimum wage.

Clinton, in his weekly radio address, reminded Republicans that it was his GOP predecessor, George Bush, who approved the last minimum wage increase.

“If, in 1990, a Republican President and a Democratic Congress could get that job done, surely in 1995 a Republican Congress and a Democratic President can do the same--to uphold the value of hard work for the American people,” Clinton said.

He also argued that because of inflation, the purchasing power of the minimum wage will hit a 40-year low next year.

“Nobody can live on just $4.25 an hour and yet 2.5 million Americans are working for just that amount, and many of them have children to feed,” he said. “Millions more are just above the minimum wage.”

Clinton on Friday unveiled a proposal to increase the minimum wage by 90 cents over two years, to $5.15 an hour. GOP congressional leaders were skeptical, promising a fair hearing and nothing more.

In the GOP response to Clinton’s broadcast, Massachusetts Rep. Peter I. Blute said House Republicans are already helping the economy create jobs by shrinking government.

As evidence, he touted reductions in congressional staff, House passage of the balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution and approval of a bill to prevent the federal government from imposing costly programs on the states without corresponding funds.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has expressed concern that increasing the minimum wage could end up destroying jobs, particularly for minority teen-agers.

And Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-Kan.), head of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, warned that low-skilled and older workers would be especially vulnerable to low-wage job cuts.

Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont has emerged as a lonely Republican voice of support for the plan, saying: “I feel strongly that we must give Vermont workers a wage they can live by.”

Administration officials estimate that 11 million to 14 million workers would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage to $5.15.