Fight Is at Hand in Senate Over Minimum Wage Hike

When the U.S. Senate meets today to consider the emotionally charged issue of hiking the minimum wage, Republican leaders face an acute predicament: The American public overwhelmingly supports the pay increase that many GOP lawmakers oppose.

Faced with this reality, Republicans have put together a series of measures designed to soften any hike in the wage, while still allowing for a vote on the popular proposal.

The climactic vote, which may come as early as today, has taken on towering symbolism, coming during an election year and at a time when Americans increasingly blame cost-cutting corporations for their economic woes.

For many legislators, opposing the minimum wage is an uncomfortable position to be in: “They [Republicans] have figured out a way to be for the minimum wage while they really oppose it,” a senior Democratic aide maintained Monday.

On one level, the vote will be over rules that should apply to small enterprises, which are often described as least able to afford the proposed increase of 90 cents an hour. Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) is proposing an amendment to exempt small firms, those with sales below $500,000 a year, from the wage hike.

The White House, rank-and-file Democrats and organized labor adamantly oppose the Bond amendment, with President Clinton saying that he will veto any bill containing such a “poison pill.”

Nor is it clear what a minimum wage bill would look like once it emerges from a House-Senate conference committee--which would have to compromise differences between the Senate bill and the one passed by the House.

“A minimum wage increase is not a foregone conclusion by any means,” said Mike Roush, a lobbyist with the National Federation of Independent Business, which has found that 82% of its membership opposes the increase.

The federation and other business-advocacy groups have fought vigorously against the minimum wage hike, a position that finds much sympathy among the conservative Republicans who control both houses of Congress.

But big majorities of voters decisively support raising the wage--a reality that is not comforting to Republicans, who wish to avoid being branded as “extremists” by their Democratic critics.

House members passed the wage hike in May, as dozens of Republicans abandoned the GOP leadership and sided with Democrats in important votes.

Today’s Senate battle is expected to center on the Bond amendment. It not only would exempt the smallest businesses from a higher minimum wage but would also allow employers to pay new workers a “training wage,” which would be lower than the minimum wage, for up to 180 days and apply it to workers of all ages.