[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 562 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 562

To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase and index the 
   Federal minimum wage relative to the average hourly earnings for 
       private, nonagricultural workers, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

               March 11 (legislative day, March 3), 1993

 Mr. Wellstone introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
         referred to the Committee on Labor and Human Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase and index the 
   Federal minimum wage relative to the average hourly earnings for 
       private, nonagricultural workers, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Fair Minimum Wage Guarantee Act of 
1993''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND POLICIES.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) after more than 9 years during which the minimum wage 
        remained fixed at $3.35 per hour, Congress passed and the 
        President signed in November 1989 the Fair Labor Standards 
        Amendments of 1989 (Public Law 101-157) which raised the 
        minimum wage to $3.80 per hour after April 1, 1990 and to $4.25 
        per hour after April 1, 1991;
            (2) the modest increases in the minimum wage in 1990 and 
        1991 did little to address the substantial erosion in the 
        purchasing power of the minimum wage over the past 15 years;
            (3) based on changes in the Consumer Price Index-Urban, the 
        minimum hourly wage would have to be increased to $6.16 on 
        September 1, 1993 and to $6.83 on September 1, 1996 in order to 
        have the same purchasing power it had on January 1, 1978 when 
        the minimum wage was $2.65 an hour;
            (4) the minimum wage in 1978 was 47 percent of the average 
        private wage in the non-agricultural sector, but in 1992 was 
        estimated to be only 40 percent of the average wage and will be 
        subject to continuing erosion without indexing;
            (5) from the late 1970's through 1992, the after-tax 
        average family income of the richest 1 percent of the 
        population rose by 136 percent, while the after-tax average 
        family income of the poorest one-fifth of the population fell 
        12 percent;
            (6) it remains in the interest of the American people to 
        ensure that our lowest-paid workers are paid a living wage the 
        value of which does not continually erode;
            (7) a four-step phased increase in the minimum wage will 
        restore its value to a level approaching that of 1978, increase 
        incentives for the poor to seek and retain jobs, and help to 
        mitigate poverty in inner city communities that have a 
        disproportionate share of low-wage and unskilled workers;
            (8) increasing the minimum wage by an increment of $0.60 
        beginning on September 1, 1993, followed by an increment of 
        $0.70 an hour effective on September 1, 1994, an increment of 
        $0.65 an hour effective September 1, 1995, and an increment of 
        $0.55 an hour effective September 1, 1996, will bring the 
        minimum wage to $6.75 an hour, an amount approximating that 
        needed to restore the minimum wage to the value it had in 1978; 
        and
            (9) indexing is needed to prevent continual erosion in the 
        value of the minimum wage and to substitute modest annual 
        increases in the minimum wage consistent with general wage 
        trends for large, belated, and sometimes inadequate adjustments 
        by the Congress.

SEC. 3. MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE AND INDEXATION.

    Paragraph (1) of section 6(a) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 
1938 (29 U.S.C. 206(a)(1)) is amended to read as follows:
            ``(1) except as otherwise provided in this section--
                    ``(A) not less than--
                            ``(i) $4.25 an hour during the period 
                        ending on August 30, 1993;
                            ``(ii) $4.85 an hour during the year 
                        beginning on September 1, 1993;
                            ``(iii) $5.55 an hour during the year 
                        beginning September 1, 1994;
                            ``(iv) $6.20 an hour during the year 
                        beginning September 1, 1995; and
                            ``(v) $6.75 an hour during the year 
                        beginning September 1, 1996; and
                    ``(B) with respect to the year beginning on 
                September 1, 1997, and each such succeeding year, not 
                less than the amount applicable under this paragraph 
                adjusted on June 1 of such year to equal 50 percent of 
                the monthly average hourly earnings for nonfarm, 
                nonsupervisory private workers for the preceding 12 
                months, as determined by the Bureau of Labor 
                Statistics, rounded to the nearest multiple of $0.05, 
                except that any amount determined under this 
                subparagraph shall not be less than the amount 
                applicable under this paragraph for the preceding 
                year;''.

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