Senate Leaves Minimum Wage at $5.15

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The New York Sun

WASHINGTON – The Republican-controlled Senate smothered a proposed election-year increase in the minimum wage yesterday, rejecting Democratic claims that it was past time to boost the $5.15 hourly pay floor that has been in effect for nearly a decade.

The 52-46 vote was eight short of the 60 needed for approval and came one day after House Republican leaders made clear they do not intend to allow a vote on the issue, fearing it might pass.

The Senate vote marked the ninth time since 1997 that Democrats there have proposed – and Republicans have blocked – a stand-alone increase in the minimum wage.

“Americans believe that no one who works hard for a living should have to live in poverty. A job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it,” Senator Kennedy, a Democrat of Massachusetts, said. He said a worker paid $5.15 an hour would earn $10,700 a year, “almost $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three.”

Republicans said a minimum wage increase would wind up hurting the low-wage workers that Democrats said they want to help.

“For every increase you make in the minimum wage, you will cost some of them their jobs, “Senator Isakson, a Republican of Georgia, said.

He described the clash as a “classic debate between two very different philosophies: one philosophy that believes in the marketplace, the competitive system … and entrepreneurship. And secondly is the argument that says the government knows better and that top-down mandates work.”

The measure drew the support of 43 Democrats, eight Republicans, and one independent. Four of those eight Republicans are seeking re-election in the fall.

“When the Democrats control the Senate, one of the first pieces of legislation we’ll see is an increase in the minimum wage,” Mr. Kennedy said.


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