Bill advances to link state, federal minimum wages

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana’s minimum wage would be tied to the federal rate under legislation that cleared a Senate committee Wednesday.\nThe House Pensions and Labor Committee included the link in a House bill that originally sought to raise Indiana’s current minimum wage of $5.15 per hour – which is the same as the current federal rate – to $7.50 per hour by 2008.\nBut state law does not require the amounts to be the same. When federal and state minimum wage laws differ, the higher wage applies to most workers.\nA bill pending before the U.S. Congress would raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour in increments over the next two years. If that occurs and the Indiana bill passes in its amended form, Indiana’s rate would increase to the same level and match any future federal increases.\nRep. John Day, D-Indianapolis, said he wanted to increase the state rate to $7.50 per hour, but several Republicans and a few businesses told him they would not support anything higher than the federal level. But he said the amended bill was still a step toward improvement.\nThe proposed federal minimum-wage increase is included in congressional legislation that would provide more money to sustain military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that legislation also sets deadlines for withdrawing troops from Iraq, and President Bush has threatened to veto it.\nDay said he was confident that Congress would increase the federal minimum wage this year, perhaps by putting the provision in other legislation.\nThe real gamble with the Indiana House bill as it now stands is if Congress does not increase the federal minimum wage, Day said, and “we are still stuck at $5.15.”\n“The good news is that any time the federal goes up, we go up,” Day said.