Legislation raising the minimum wage to $4.25 an hour by April 1991 is on the fast track in Congress, following a compromise between the Bush administration and Democratic leaders that ends an eight-year stalemate.
The House planned to vote on the proposal Wednesday, and Senate leaders promised action before Thanksgiving. Barring unforeseen problems, President Bush could sign the bill by then as well, triggering the first minimum wage increase in nine years on April 1, 1990.The measure would create a new "subminimum wage" for teenagers with little job experience, allowing them to be paid 85 percent of the minimum wage for their first three months in the work force. The lower rate could be extended for another three months if an employer showed that the youths were receiving specific skills training.
"This package offers the promise of better wages for the working men and women of this country and gives incentives to create new jobs for our young people," Bush said in a written statement that commended organized labor and congressional leaders.
"This is a victory for working men and women and I think long overdue," House Speaker Thomas S. Foley, D-Wash., said Tuesday after the deal was struck.
Both sides made significant concessions in an effort to avoid a repeat of Bush's veto of minimum wage legislation earlier this year, which was sustained by the House.
Democrats acknowledged giving ground but said it was necessary to guarantee a boost in the minimum wage, which has been frozen at $3.35 an hour since January 1981 in a stalemate that lasted throughout the Reagan administration.
The compromise would boost the minimum wage to $3.80 on April 1 and provide the final 45-cent increase to $4.25 on April 1, 1991. The subminimum wage, for workers age 16 to 19 in their first jobs, would be $3.23 in the first year and $3.61 in the second.