by Mike Hall, Jul 5, 2006

House Republican honchos may not have seen the light regarding a raise in the minimum wage—but it looks like they are feeling the heat of public opinion.

After refusing to allow a vote on raising the federal minimum of $5.15 an hour (where it has been stuck for nearly a decade), House Republican leaders said last week they were going to have to find some way to “deal with it.” 

Not exactly what you’d call a ringing endorsement.

Last month, Republican leaders vowed to keep minimum wage legislation off the House floor when a $2.10-an-hour increase was attached to an appropriations bill. Last week, they blocked a move to add the raise to another spending measure. But they did succeed in giving yet another tax break to millionaires by approving huge new permanent exemptions to the estate tax.

They acknowledged that the change of heart among Republicans is being driven by the huge public support for a minimum wage raise.

A poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press released in April shows public support at 83 percent for raising the minimum. Republicans also likely fear the issue will drive voters to the polls in November—especially in the half-dozen states with ballot initiatives on minimum wages.

Republican House leaders have blocked every attempt since 1997 to raise the minimum, but this year the issue has captured the public’s attention—helped by the AFL-CIO’s America Needs a Raise campaign that has led to efforts in more than 20 states to raise the wage, either through legislation or voter initiatives.

AFL-CIO e-activists have sent more than 100,000 messages to congressional offices calling on lawmakers to raise the minimum, and other groups have mounted similar efforts.

However, it’s likely when House Republicans find a way to “deal” with the minimum wage, their bill will be accompanied by the same shenanigans used last month by Senate Republicans. A Republican proposal to boost the wage by just $1.10 also would have eliminated wage-and-hour protections for millions of workers, cut overtime pay by replacing the 40-hour workweek with an 80-hour, two-week work period and lowered wages for tipped workers.

The proposal, which lost 45–53 in the Senate, was in response to a real minimum wage bill proposed by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

The Kennedy proposal, an amendment to the defense authorization bill, would have raised the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. The bill won a majority, but under the rules imposed by Republican leaders, it needed 60 votes to pass.

Just what tactics House Republican leaders will use is unclear at this time. Along with a minimum wage amendment on the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education bill,  Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) has sponsored a stand-alone bill (H.R. 2429) to boost the federal minimum by $2.10. A clean, up-or-down vote on that is not likely.

Meanwhile, Congress hasn’t failed to reward itself. Since the minimum wage was last raised in 1997, Congress has voted nine times to raise its own pay—by a total of $35,000 a year. The latest increase is due to take effect in January 2007. Last week, Senate Democrats said they would do everything possible to kill that raise unless Congress passed a minimum wage increase.

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