State minimum wage hike stalls in Iowa

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By Todd Dorman | Thursday, January 11, 2007 12:57 AM CST | () comments

DES MOINES — A push by Statehouse Democrats to hike Iowa’s minimum wage is being slowed by disagreements over details, including whether the wage floor should rise automatically each year.

Democrats took over the House and Senate on Monday, vowing to swiftly push a minimum-wage hike through both chambers by week’s end. Leaders now concede that the process will stretch into at least next week.

“There are honest differences of opinion, and those differences will get resolved in the coming hours or days,” Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said. “We’ll reach a consensus and move forward.”

The bill was supposed to be debated Wednesday by the Senate Labor and Business Relations Committee, but the discussion was postponed.

Democrats in both the House and Senate favor increasing Iowa’s current $5.15-per-hour minimum wage to $6.20 on April 1 and to $7.25 on Jan., 1, 2008. They say such a move would directly benefit more than 100,000 low-income Iowans.

But unlike the House wage-hike bill, the Senate version includes an annual, automatic minimum-wage increase tied to the Consumer Price Index. The Senate bill also eliminates sub-minimum training wages paid to teenage workers during the first 90 days of employment. Iowa’s current training wage is $4.25 per hour.

Some majority Democrats in both chambers have misgivings about those extra provisions. Negotiations continue, according to lawmakers.

Supporters of automatic increases, or “indexing,” point to the fact it has been nearly 10 years since politicians approved the most recent minimum-wage hike.

Opponents contend that indexing may not make sense under poor economic conditions, such as when unemployment is high, and puts a burden on small-business owners.

“There are differences of opinion all over the place. We’re just trying to come together,” said Sen. Dick Dearden, D-Des Moines, chairman of the Labor and Business Relations Committee. “It’s going to take a little longer than we thought.”

Todd Dorman can be contacted at (515) 243-0138 or todd.dorman@lee.net.