Released: July 17, 2006

Minimum wage push pays off?

Source: By Edward Epstein, San Francisco Chronicle

House Democrats’ election-year persistence in trying to force a vote on raising the federal minimum wage for the first time in almost a decade looks as if it could bear fruit.

The Democrats have seized on the issue, which polls show is overwhelmingly popular with voters, as a building block in their effort to retake both houses of Congress in November. Their effort in Washington is moving forward as organizers in several states push ballot initiatives for the fall election to adopt or increase state minimum wages, measures that the Democrats hope could boost turnout of voters likely to lean their way.

In California, one of 21 states with minimum wages above the federal level, the Legislature is considering bills that would raise the state minimum from $6.75 to $7.75.

Republican leaders in both houses of Congress oppose an increase, saying that mandating a higher minimum wage would hurt low-wage workers by destroying their jobs. They also say the Democrats are engaged in a cynical election-year ploy.

“Listen, I’ve been here 16 years. And you never hear one word out of Democrats in an odd-numbered year. I wonder why that is,” said House Republican Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, a leading opponent of a wage increase.

Democrats counter that they have long been committed to an increase, but can only pressure the Republicans who control Congress to act in an election year.

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