Nevada’s minimum wage bill could set U.S. example

Stephen Curran

Thursday, March 3, 2005 | 9:42 a.m.

The bill on its way to the state Senate to raise Nevada's minimum wage by $1 an hour may serve as a template for similar measures in other states, officials from the nation's largest federation of unions said Wednesday.

The Democratic-controlled Assembly on Monday approved the wage hike, which would raise the state's minimum hourly pay to $6.15 an hour, by a 33-8 margin. Eight of the 16 Assembly Republicans voted for the measure, which must now be approved by the Republican-dominated Senate.

Danny Thompson, executive secretary-treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO, said such state-by-state measures are the only way minimum-wage workers can hope for higher hourly pay.

Voters in November approved an initiative to amend the state Constitution raising the minimum wage. The measure will have to be approved again next year for it to go into effect in 2007. A similar initiative was approved in Florida.

If the measure is approved, Nevada would join the 17 other states and District of Columbia with minimum wages higher than the federal rate. Washington state, at $7.35 an hour, currently has the highest minimum wage.

The Nevada hike, like measures in other states, would also index the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation, Thompson said.

At $5.15 an hour, a full-time worker earns less than $11,000 a year before taxes, falling far short of the $14 an hour living wage in Nevada. At $6.15 an hour -- closer to $13,000 a year -- workers will still be struggling, but will see a slight relief, he said.

"First and foremost, minimum wage workers can't afford to live," Thompson said. "... We're talking about basic needs."

In Nevada, the lowest paid AFL-CIO members belong to the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which pays "boxboys" who bag groceries just shy of $6 an hour and provides medical benefits, Thompson said.

Nevada's estimated 51,000 minimum wage workers typically do not have union backing, he added.

Bill Samuel, the union's legislative director, said the current federal minimum wage amounts for about one-third of the average salary nationwide, the lowest since 1949.

"The need to raise minimum wage is almost beyond argument," Samuel said, pointing to the $28,000-a-year increase in Congressional salaries since the current minimum wage was enacted in 1997.

While it will result in lower profit for businesses, Samuel argued raising the minimum wage would have a long-term benefit for the country.

"Putting an extra few dollars in the pockets of workers helps the economy," he said.

Despite a bill supported by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., that would raise the federal minimum wage to $7.50 an hour in 2006 and $8.25 in 2007, Samuel and Thompson said they held little hope for the Bush administration or Republican-controlled House and Senate passing any kind of federal hike in the minimum wage.

The state AFL-CIO actively supported the Question 6 ballot initiative that would change the state constitution to boost the minimum wage for employers who do not provide health insurance for their workers. Such measures might be the best hope for workers, Thompson said.

"I don't hold out any hope for the Bush administration in terms of minimum wage," Thompson said. "... We opted to go the constitution route."