Minimum Wage To Be Raised By $2.10

WASHINGTON — After a decade-long wait, America's lowest-paid workers saw Congress poised yesterday to increase the federal minimum wage by $2.10.

With the House and Senate ready to pass a rewritten bill, and President Bush signaling his approval at a White House news conference, it seems likely that the end is near for the longest stretch without the federal pay floor rising since the minimum wage was established in 1938.

"We're very hopeful we're going to see finally that increase in the next couple of days," Senator Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and chair of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, said.

This would be the first change since the minimum wage went from $4.75 to $5.15 on September 1, 1997 under President Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress.

The minimum wage provisions were one part of the Iraq war spending bill that did not change: the minimum wage goes up to $5.85 two months after Mr. Bush signs the bill, then to $6.55 one year later and to $7.25 the next year.

The Economic Policy Institute, a research group in Washington, estimates that 5.6 million workers — or 4% of the work force — currently earn less than $7.25.

"This is a great day for America's middle class," the chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, Rep. George Miller, said.