Minimum Wage

Through some deft parliamentary maneuvering, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) avoided what could have been a politically awkward vote on increasing the minimum wage Tuesday, despite the best efforts of the Democratic minority to force the Senate to go on record.

A solid majority of the Senate indicated support Thursday for increasing the minimum wage, but the margin of approval was not large enough to force Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) to permit a vote on the politically charged issue. Eight Republicans joined all 47 Democrats in the chamber in backing a procedural move that would have required Dole to schedule a vote on raising the minimum wage to $5.15 from $4.25 an hour in two increments over the next two years.

When I was just a young boy back in 1938, Congress debated the proposed Fair Labor Standards Act--the so-called "minimum wage bill." According to the record, the proponents declared, "A bill of this kind is very necessary if we are going to help the underpaid workers of our country, reduce the relief rolls and spread employment." The opponents responded, "This wage-hour bill is political and not economic; it will increase unemployment, not decrease it. Instead of providing more work . . .

Countless words--heartfelt and hired, meant to enlighten and meant to obscure--have gusted around the 15 statewide propositions on Tuesday's ballot. Voters soon will have the final word, putting a quick stop to the winds by quietly pushing styluses. Before they do, some questions not often posed during the long issue campaigns bear asking: Are the propositions more than pet concerns that interest groups and ideologues have succeeded in elevating to the status of ballot questions?

Raising the minimum wage, widely considered an issue with broad public appeal, has turned out to be a tougher-than-expected sell to voters across the country. That realization, political observers say, could chill some of the campaigns emerging from coast to coast to boost the wages of the working poor. Unions and their allies scored their biggest minimum wage victory in Tuesday's voting in California, where Proposition 210 captured nearly 62% of the vote.

Led by the usually low-profile Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, a coalition of the city's business leaders is embarking on a fund-raising and public relations campaign to battle a "living wage" proposal being pushed by City Council liberals. Leaders of the Coalition to Keep LA Working, which will kick off the campaign at a Trade Technical College news conference this morning, said they want to ensure that the issue is fully aired before the City Council votes on it, possibly next month.

In the first sweep of the Southland's garment industry since the federal minimum wage hike, an overwhelming majority of contractors were found to be paying their workers at the new rate. Investigators had feared the new minimum wage, which went up last month to $4.75 from $4.25, would result in more labor abuses.

A ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage would not help the working poor as touted and would force all California families to pay an average of $107 more per year in taxes, according to a Stanford University study. The study, released this week by Stanford's Hoover Institution, suggests that raising the hourly minimum wage to $5.75 would drive taxes on goods up $1.1 billion a year. The minimum wage would be raised from $4.75 an hour to $5 by March 1997, and to $5.

The presence of Proposition 210 on the Nov. 5 ballot will give Californians their first opportunity to vote on the minimum wage. But the initiative is flawed and the timing of the vote is problematic, coming so soon after last summer's passage of a higher federal minimum wage. The Times endorsed raising the federal minimum wage; however, we oppose 210 because it would set an undesirable precedent for establishing pay scales.

It's going to get hotter than ever in the kitchen today at restaurants nationwide. With the first part of the two-step federal minimum wage increase taking effect, fat will be thrown on the fire of workplace relations everywhere, from fast-food joints to upscale eateries. The reason: The initial increase, boosting the minimum from $4.25 an hour to $4.75, is having the unintended consequence of antagonizing a lot of people already working at restaurants.