The Minnesota Senate voted 36-30 Tuesday to raise the minimum wage to $6.65 an hour by 2005. They rejected efforts to impose a ?tip penalty? that would have reduced the minimum wage for workers in the hospitality industry.
The current minimum wage of $5.15 an hour has failed to keep up with inflation, advocates said. The legislation would increase the minimum wage in two increments of 75 cents each, until it reaches $6.65 per hour on July 1, 2005.
?What a higher minimum wage means is maybe you?ve got an extra bag of groceries on your table every week,? said Kris Jacobs, executive director of the JOBS NOW Coalition, which supported the legislation. ?Or if you?re a single mom, you can pay the fee for your child to play Little League, or rent an instrument for the child who wants to play the trumpet.
?A raise means minimum wage workers are getting an acknowledgement that their work is valuable. A low minimum wage hurts all people in Minnesota, not just those earning the minimum, because it devalues work.?
The legislation, authored by Senator Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul, faces an uncertain future in the Minnesota House, where Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, has not even allowed a hearing on the bill. For the increase to get passed this session, it would have to be attached to another piece of legislation.
In debate on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, made an impassioned case for a higher minimum, contrasting the compensation of low-wage workers with that of executives earning millions of dollars.
Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna, led opposition to the increase and said it was not needed.
Two Republicans, Steve Dille of Dassel and Paul Koering of Fort Ripley, joined DFLers in supporting the increase.
A wild card in the legislative debate is Governor Tim Pawlenty. ?He?s been very careful to not say a thing? about his position on the minimum wage, Jacobs said.
An amendment to impose a ?tip penalty? failed on a 33-29 vote. It would have allowed businesses to pay tipped employees, such as waiters and waitresses, a lower minimum wage.
The bill as originally drafted would have instituted automatic minimum wage increases, indexed to inflation, starting July 1, 2006, but that portion was deleted on the Senate floor before the vote.
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The Minnesota Senate voted 36-30 Tuesday to raise the minimum wage to $6.65 an hour by 2005. They rejected efforts to impose a ?tip penalty? that would have reduced the minimum wage for workers in the hospitality industry.
The current minimum wage of $5.15 an hour has failed to keep up with inflation, advocates said. The legislation would increase the minimum wage in two increments of 75 cents each, until it reaches $6.65 per hour on July 1, 2005.
?What a higher minimum wage means is maybe you?ve got an extra bag of groceries on your table every week,? said Kris Jacobs, executive director of the JOBS NOW Coalition, which supported the legislation. ?Or if you?re a single mom, you can pay the fee for your child to play Little League, or rent an instrument for the child who wants to play the trumpet.
?A raise means minimum wage workers are getting an acknowledgement that their work is valuable. A low minimum wage hurts all people in Minnesota, not just those earning the minimum, because it devalues work.?
The legislation, authored by Senator Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul, faces an uncertain future in the Minnesota House, where Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, has not even allowed a hearing on the bill. For the increase to get passed this session, it would have to be attached to another piece of legislation.
In debate on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, made an impassioned case for a higher minimum, contrasting the compensation of low-wage workers with that of executives earning millions of dollars.
Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna, led opposition to the increase and said it was not needed.
Two Republicans, Steve Dille of Dassel and Paul Koering of Fort Ripley, joined DFLers in supporting the increase.
A wild card in the legislative debate is Governor Tim Pawlenty. ?He?s been very careful to not say a thing? about his position on the minimum wage, Jacobs said.
An amendment to impose a ?tip penalty? failed on a 33-29 vote. It would have allowed businesses to pay tipped employees, such as waiters and waitresses, a lower minimum wage.
The bill as originally drafted would have instituted automatic minimum wage increases, indexed to inflation, starting July 1, 2006, but that portion was deleted on the Senate floor before the vote.
Related article
State should raise minimum wage, economist says