Clinton Endorses $1 Minimum Wage Hike Aim Is For Purchasing Power Of 20 Years Ago

President Clinton on Thursday endorsed a $1 increase in the minimum wage over the next two years, at a Democratic pep rally on Capitol Hill designed to present a united front for the 1998 election year.

“I think we ought to reach out a hand just like we did before,” Clinton said. “We raised the minimum wage once in this Congress. We should do it again, and the economy will support it.”

Senator Edward M. Kennedy had persuaded Clinton to support the idea of another increase in the minimum wage, now $5.15 an hour, and Clinton pledged to back a hike during his State of the Union address last month.

But Thursday was the first time Clinton specified an amount. The $1 increase is a variation of legislation filed by Kennedy and House Democratic Whip David Bonior. That measure called for three 50-cent increases over three years, a move that Kennedy said would bring the hourly minimum wage closer to the purchasing power it had 20 years ago.

“This is good news,” Kennedy said about Clinton’s announcement at the Capitol. But he added, “As far as I’m concerned, we’ll be back in the year 2000” pressing for another wage hike.

Kennedy and Bonior plan to revise their legislation later this month to match Clinton’s position - deleting the third 50-cent increase and a provision to tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Kennedy on the Senate Labor Committee.

If congressional Democrats harbor any concerns about Clinton’s political vulnerability because of the ongoing investigation into his alleged relationship with a former White House intern, they gave no sign of it Thursday.

Senator John F. Kerry said the Democrats’ poll-tested legislative agenda makes a compelling platform for lawmakers up for reelection this November.

“People are focused on the things we can do something about. The other matter just drags us and the agenda down, and it’s not a priority that people want to focus on,” Kerry said.

Said Kennedy, “I have not seen a tick (of distraction) in terms of working out this Democratic agenda.”

Clinton made one cryptic allusion to the independent counsel’s investigation when he said, “Our citizens are focused on the future and their own lives, not on our lives.”

But he concentrated his remarks on his policy initiatives, saying, “If it does not happen this year, we owe it to the American people to make sure it is not our fault.”