Where I Stand: Don’t play politics with wages

Thursday, March 28, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

LET'S KEEP THE war on wages to a minimum.

The latest fight in the halls of Congress is over the proposed increase in the minimum wage from $4.25 an hour to $5.15 per hour over the next two years.

Those in favor of raising the minimum amount for the nation's least-paid workers argue that, even with the increase, a full-time employee will earn only $1,800 per year more than the current annual salary of approximately $8,500.

It is hard to argue with a desire by elected officials to raise the minimum amount to be earned by full-time workers to a little more than $10,000 per year, especially when the official poverty line for a family of four is more than $16,000.

The last time the minimum wage was increased was in 1991 under President George Bush. And Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and House Speaker Newt Gingrich voted for that increase.

So what's changed? It's a presidential year for one. Make that for two, three and four because politics is at the heart and in the soul of those fighting for the voters' approval on this issue.

For some to suggest that raising working people's minimum wages to an amount that keeps them well within the grips of poverty is wrong-headed is an oversimplification of the problem. It does, however, play well in the political heartland where some of our most vocal citizens are thinking too much about themselves and not enough about those who must also ride in this great ship of state.

As for those who are pushing the wage hike by claiming it to be a panacea for the problems of the working poor, their rhetoric falls a bit short of reality, too.

The right answer for a nation that wants to reward work by raising out of poverty those who commit themselves to full-time labor is to expand the benefits of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

The EITC was first created under a Republican president, Gerald Ford. It got its largest boost during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, another Republican, who heralded it as one of the best ways to reward working people for their labor. He was right.

The EITC is a national policy of providing tax credits to those who work hard but don't earn enough to get beyond the poverty level. Since the hue and cry from the people is to support families who work hard and play by the rules, there appears to be no better way to accomplish that goal than through the EITC.

And, yet, those elected officials who are fighting so hard to make political hay out of their opposition to the minimum wage increase -- led by Dole and Gingrich in a politics-as-usual about face -- are the same folks who have encouraged the Republican-controlled House to strip away the benefits of the EITC as it currently exists.

Come on guys, you can't have it both ways. Haven't you heard that Americans want to encourage work and discourage welfare? And don't you know that the best way to do that is to increase the EITC which allows those who work full time to support their families while staying far away from the overburdened welfare rolls?

So get off the political horses long enough to do what most Americans want -- for a change. Cut out the demagoguery and increase the EITC for America's working poor. That's the way to self-sufficiency and that's the way to a better and more prosperous country.

As for the minimum wage? With all its drawbacks, it will have little or no adverse impact over the long term and it may help a few people now.

So what's the problem?

Other than the politics of a presidential year, I mean.