The minimum wage is back on the battlefield. President Clinton and other Democrats are pushing to raise the current $4.25 by 90 cents or $1. The Republican leadership, faced with some back-bench rebellion, has been fending off a vote. The arguments on both sides are classic. Opponents claim that a boost would benefit mostly teen-agers, hurt small business and result in a loss of jobs. Proponents argue that a fair minimum wage prevents sweatshops and encourages poor people to leave the welfare rolls and go to work.
Is raising the minimum wage a good or bad idea? Will it result in the loss of jobs? Are employers still able to hire at the minimum wage?
Eugene A. Conti Jr.
Md. secretary of labor, licensing and regulation
We have had a minimum wage in this country since the days of Franklin Roosevelt. The problem is that it hasn't been increased much in the past 15 years and the buying power has eroded significantly. I think it is time we increase it.
I don't think it will decrease jobs and I won't try to make an argument that it will create jobs. I think it will be neutral. But it will give people who work at these jobs a chance to support their families better and give them an incentive to work harder and try to move up in the wage scale.
About 130,000 people in Maryland will benefit from an increase -- that's about 6 percent of the work force.
There was a concern on the part of small businesses when the minimum wage was increased in 1991. We have created a lot of jobs since then. I don't see this having much of an impact on small business.
In some areas of the state, the minimum wage is not competitive anymore, particularly in higher cost counties like Montgomery. But in many places, including Baltimore City, there are a lot of minimum-wage jobs and I think people deserve a raise.
Tom Dilworth
Chief policy analyst, Employment Policies Institute Foundation
Raising the minimum wage will cost jobs. There are 138,900 jobs in Maryland that pay between $4.25 (the current minimum wage) and $5.15 an hour (President Clinton's proposed minimum). If the federal minimum wage is hiked to $5.15, Maryland will lose 7,400 jobs.
You have to look at who works at the minimum wage. Looking at Census Bureau data, we found that only 2.8 percent of the people targeted by the Clinton proposal are single working parents. Only 8 percent are supporting at least one other person in the household.
