Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 13, 1993 TAG: 9310130127
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
But he said the raise would be coupled with an increase in benefits, such as insurance as provided under President Clinton's health care plan, that could bring the value of the raise to 50 cents an hour.
In an interviews with reporters after speaking at the National Press Club, Reich said the goal most likely would be to increase minimum hourly earnings by 50 cents.
He estimated that for many employers, the cost of providing health insurance for minimum-wage workers, as the health plan would require, would be from 15 cents to 35 cents an hour.
In a later interview, after some White House officials had grown uneasy about Reich's suggestion, he backpedaled a bit, saying he had not decided on any specific recommendation and his proposal could end up amounting to less than 50 cents, including an increase in benefits.
Reich said he was convinced that a 50-cent-an-hour raise in the minimum wage would not lead to a decrease in jobs - an assertion disputed by many business lobbyists.
Reich has become the foremost champion of a higher minimum wage in an administration in which some officials fear antagonizing the business community, already upset about the tax increases passed in Clinton's budget this summer.
Reich, saying he would make his proposal to the president within two weeks, defended it by explaining that the minimum wage, after accounting for inflation, was 30 percent below its 1968 level.
In addition, he pointed to studies by economists from Harvard University and Princeton University that show an increase in the minimum wage actually could increase employment by encouraging people who were not working to seek jobs.
by CNB