Minimum wage: Every legislative session it becomes a classic confrontation between liberals and conservatives &045; Democrats who tend to want to increase it, and Republicans who want to hold the line. It’s already an issue in this year’s Minnesota and Wisconsin legislatures, and the same left-right patterns are emerging.

In Minnesota, in the DFL-dominated Senate, the Jobs, Energy and Community Development Committee approved &045; on a party-line vote &045; passing on to the full Senate a bill that would increase Minnesota’s minimum wage to $7 an hour for businesses doing more than $500,000 in annual sales, and $6.67 for smaller firms, to take effect by July 2006.

The state’s current minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, also the federal minimum, and it has been at that level since 1997.

There are numerous good arguments for increasing the minimum wage when it falls far short of the minimum needed to keep workers on pace with inflation &045; not that it constitutes a &uot;living wage.&uot;

Business interests pose valid arguments against increases as well, principal among them being that mandated minimums discourage business expansion &045; which produces jobs &045; and can have a cooling effect on economic growth.

Then there is the economic theorist’s argument, that raising the minimum wage does not create &uot;wealth,&uot; it merely transfers it.

It’s difficult to say precisely what an equitable minimum wage should be in today’s economy. There’s no question that today’s economy is not the same as the 1997 economy when present

minimums were established in the two states.

But lawmakers in both states should be wary of moving their minimum hourly wage levels drastically out of line with those in neighboring states.

To do so puts the state with the higher minimum at a disadvantage in economic development and even in retaining businesses.

It might very well be that an increase of some amount is due this year, but it should not be markedly ahead of the national level or levels in other states in the country’s midsection. Being an island puts a state at great economic disadvantage.

Incidentally, the minimum wage issue in Minnesota is likely to get an entirely different reception in House committees, which reflect the Republican majority.

That should lead to sensible compromise.

(

&045; Duluth News Tribune)