- Archives

If Iraq, health care or stem-cell research didn't highlight for voters enough differences between President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry, the two candidates also have significant disagreements on the country's minimum wage. Bush, as is tradition with Republicans, has resisted a hike in the minimum wage and opposes a recent Senate bill to increase it -- a bill that comes with the names of Sens. Kerry and John Edwards. Both Democratic presidential candidate Kerry and his running mate Edwards have signed onto a bill called the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2004 that would increase the nation's minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7 an hour by 2007. Wages would go up in three stages, affecting about 7.4 million workers directly, say economists. "This would help encourage some workers out there to come back and look for jobs. It just makes sense to reward people for working," said Jason Furman, Kerry's economic policy director. Bush argues the bill would reduce low-skill, low-paying jobs. His economic policy officials say Bush supports an increase in the minimum wage but wants it to be reasonable and phased in slowly. They won't, however, give an amount or a period of time they think is reasonable. [more

]