Minimum Wage

A ruling by Los Angeles' Bureau of Contract Administration sharply contradicts Mayor Richard Riordan's office on a controversial and hotly disputed wage rule that could apply to thousands of workers at Los Angeles International and Ontario airports. At issue is whether the city's so-called living wage ordinance, passed by the council last year over Riordan's veto, applies to the airlines with leases at the two facilities.

President Clinton, trumpeting his legislative agenda at a Capitol Hill love feast staged by hundreds of Democratic allies, on Thursday threw his weight behind a plan to give America's minimum-wage workers a $1-an-hour raise. "The economy will support it," Clinton declared fervently, saying that 12 million workers stand to benefit from a proposal to raise the current minimum wage of $5.15 by 50 cents in each of the next two years. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.

Perhaps you didn't notice in the midst of the continuing TV series on the White House misadventures of that rich kid from Beverly Hills, but President Clinton wants to raise the minimum wage. He also wants to save Social Security, expand Medicare coverage and sharply decrease school class sizes. But the media have treated these points raised in Clinton's State of the Union speech and now presented as a legislative program as little more than an annoying distraction from the presidential soaps.

Workers who earn minimum wage will see their pay increase to $5.75 per hour starting Sunday in the second phase of the state's two-step increase in the minimum wage. The raise is a result of voter approval of Proposition 210 in 1996. The Department of Industrial Relations' labor division has established a toll-free phone number, (888) ASK-WAGE, providing recorded information in English, Spanish and Chinese to employers and employees on state and federal minimum wage laws.

TVparty.com Address: http://www.tvparty.com What it is: An homage to '70s television shows, put together by Billy Ingram, a Web site designer in North Carolina. Right now the site is a labor of love for which he doesn't even make minimum wage. That's about to change, though. Ingram is joining the Daily Entertainment Network, which is launching later this year. The network will sell advertising and split revenue with the content developers, who will have links to the site.

A state Assembly committee dominated by Democrats approved two bills Wednesday that would raise California's minimum wage for the fifth time in a year and a half. The increase, proposed for next March, would put the hourly minimum at either $6.50 or $6.75. That would be 75 cents to a dollar higher than the current minimum wage, but still would leave a family of three with income below the federal poverty line, backers said. Republican Gov.

After vetoing the city's first "living wage" law, Mayor Richard Riordan now has decided to allow an expansion of it to go into effect, a move the measure's champions say will increase pressure on the airlines at Los Angeles International Airport to grant raises to their security workers and others. Critics, however, say the real effect of Riordan's move will be to accelerate a legal showdown between the city and the air carriers.

I understand why many economists are upbeat on the current state of our economy. Housing prices and sales are up, consumer confidence is high and unemployment is low. But has anyone noticed the alarming trend regarding minimum- and low-wage workers? I am 35. When I was 16, I got my first job at a small flower shop.

For argument's sake, let's give President Clinton the benefit of the doubt. Let's assume that he "did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." All the same, office affairs and true workplace romances are certain to keep blooming. That's largely due to the dramatic rise in the number of women in the work force in recent decades and an increased emphasis by employers on, ahem, close teamwork.