[PAA-Discuss] Senate nixes minimum wage hike

[Sarah Gonzales]

Thankfully, it did NOT pass. However, the votes were *very*  
interesting. Take a look at how our Texas senators, Hutchinson and  
Cornyn voted and more interesting was John McCain's voting - he voted  
FOR the estate tax reduction (along with 3 other Democrats) and  
AGAINST minimum wage increase except when the increase was tied to  
Senator Enzi's amendment which slipped in the workplace flexibility  
requirements! (read on for details)

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/ 
roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00229

H.R. 5970
Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to Consider H.R. 
5970; Estate Tax and Extension of Tax Relief Act of 2006

	McCain (R-AZ), Yea
	Hutchison (R-TX), Yea
	Cornyn (R-TX), Yea
	Nelson (D-FL), Yea
	Nelson (D-NE), Yea
	Byrd (D-WV), Yea

Bill to increase minimum wage
The original bill S. 2766 was for military appropriations, there were  
a couple of  minimum wage increase  amendments

Kennedy Amdt. No. 4322 - straight up provision to increase the  
minimum wage
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/ 
roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00179

	Cornyn (R-TX), Nay
	Hutchison (R-TX), Nay
	McCain (R-AZ), Nay

Enzi Amdt. No. 4376 - provision to promote job creation and small  
business preservation in the adjustment of the Federal minimum wage.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/ 
roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00180

	Cornyn (R-TX), Nay
	Hutchison (R-TX), Yea
	McCain (R-AZ), Yea

I was wondering why Hutchinson and McCain would've changed their  
stance on this amendment, but didn't vote for the Kennedy amendment.  
You can find the verbage in TITLE XXXXI--ASSISTANCE FOR WORKERS AND  
SMALL BUSINESSES. It's complicated, but if I understand correctly in  
reading the Enzi Amdt, there is a section titled "workplace  
flexibility". This is what the Republicans tried to pass a while  
back, but got smacked over it b/c of the horrid provisions that would  
erode worker overtime, etc..., THEY TRIED TO SLIP IT IN (Enzi is a  
Republican representing Wyoming)!
This is what McCain and Hutchinson voted FOR.

Workplace Flexibility
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/15731/

With such a smarm of butter over their visages do the Republicans go  
on about the joys of "flexibility" and "freedom of choice" that you  
would have to read the bills for maybe 30 seconds before figuring out  
they're about repealing the 40-hour workweek and ending overtime.

The proposed Bush rules, which the two Republican bills codify and  
expand, would:

* Exclude previously protected workers who were entitled to overtime  
by reclassifying them as managers. Companies are already using this  
ploy where they can get away with it. Say you're frying burgers on  
the night shift at McDonald's, making overtime, and suddenly --  
congratulations -- you're the assistant night manager, with no raise  
and no overtime.

* Eliminate certain middle-income workers from overtime protections  
by adding an income limit, above which workers no longer qualify for  
overtime. You like that? You make too much to earn overtime.

* Remove overtime protection from large numbers of workers in  
aerospace, defense, health care, high tech and other industries.

<SNIP>
Minimum wage, estate tax bill dead for now
Unclear provision on tips a sticking point in Senate
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/08/04/ 
MNGIDKB4Q21.DTL

(08-04) 04:00 PDT Washington -- The Senate, by a narrow margin,  
blocked legislation Thursday night that Democratic critics said could  
have slashed the pay of about 650,000 Californians who rely on tips  
for a big part of their income.

The provision was included in a fiercely lobbied election-year  
"trifecta bill'' that seemingly offered something for everyone:  
Democrats' long-sought minimum wage increase, Republicans' cherished  
cut in estate taxes for the wealthiest families and business tax cuts  
that appealed to both parties.

For many Democrats, however, their desire for the first increase in  
nine years in the $5.15 federal minimum wage was outweighed by their  
abhorrence of a tax break for the rich they said could have cost the  
federal treasury $753 billion over 10 years.

The Democrats also contended the bill would have cut the pay for a  
few million workers in California and six other states who rely on  
tips for a big part of their income.

Those objections led to a 56-42 vote to cut off debate -- falling  
short of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's effort to gain the  
necessary 60 votes.

"This bill will cut the wages of millions of people, most of them in  
the West. This bill will add almost $1 trillion to the debt," Senate  
Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said before the vote. "Eighty-one  
hundred of the wealthiest families hit the jackpot while working  
Americans pay the debt."

The Senate's debate came as it moved to finish business and leave  
today for its August recess. Frist switched his vote on the motion to  
end debate from "yes" to "no" to preserve his right as leader to  
bring the bill back to the Senate at a later date.

The House, last Saturday just after midnight, passed the bill and  
left on its five-week break.

Republican House leaders had long opposed a higher minimum wage --  
which is earned by about 7 million people -- because they said it  
would have destroyed low-wage jobs.

But political pressure to allow a vote increased as Democrats focused  
on the lack of a minimum wage increase and Republicans looked to the  
midterm congressional elections fearful about their party's prospects  
for keeping control of the House and Senate.

Instead of providing a clear vote on the minimum wage, Republicans  
teamed it with legislation that would have cut the estate tax.  
Republican leaders hoped the bill would allow them to defang the  
Democrats' criticism that the GOP was hostile to the working poor  
while also achieving one of their top goals -- reducing taxes for  
wealthy families.

To sweeten the pot, Republican leaders threw in a host of tax  
provisions they hoped would appeal to individual senators,  
particularly Democrats whose votes were needed. So the bill  
contained, for example, tax breaks for coal-mining companies, aimed  
at Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and timber tax breaks aimed at Sen.  
Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

"One thing I've learned in my time in government is you can always  
find a reason to vote no. It takes a bigger step ... to compromise  
and get something done that is important for people," said Sen. Rick  
Santorum, R-Pa., during the debate. "This bill does that."

But one of the items that unraveled the deal was the minimum wage  
issue in states like California that don't allow employers to use  
"tip credits'' in figuring the pay for workers such as waiters,  
manicurists and bartenders who get regular tips.

"This legislation is cynical,'' said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.  
"It's all done to let the public think they are doing something about  
the minimum wage. But what they're doing to tipped employees is a  
disgrace.''

There was a bitter disagreement about what the tip credit provision  
meant. Democrats contended it would have cut the pay of about 650,000  
Californians from the current $6.75 state minimum wage plus tips to  
$2.13 an hour plus tips. In San Francisco, which has its own, higher  
minimum wage, they maintained pay would have been hacked from $8.82  
an hour plus tips to $2.13 with tips.

But Republicans and the restaurant industry had a sharply different  
reading. They said the change would have applied only to future  
increases in the federal, state or local minimum wage in the seven  
states. In other words, if California raised the minimum -- as is  
being considered -- workers who get regular tips wouldn't have  
received that new higher wage.

"The tip credit provision in the minimum-wage bill protects employee  
wages at their current level. No provision results in the lowering of  
wages for any worker,'' California Restaurant Association President  
Jot Condie said before the vote.

The bill, HR5970, called for the federal minimum wage to increase to  
$7.25 over three years, but Democrats said their reading made it  
clear that tipped workers would have faced a big wage cut. To bolster  
their view, they offered supporting opinions from the nonpartisan  
Congressional Research Service and the Congressional Budget Office.

But the restaurateurs, who sought the tip credit provision, disagreed.

"We just don't agree with that interpretation,'' Condie said. "And  
the legal experts that we have asked to review this do not interpret  
it that way either."

The bill's backers also cited a letter from the U.S. Labor Department  
saying the department interpreted the legislation to "protect current  
minimum wages.''

The California Labor Federation worked against the bill, which was  
opposed by Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

"Our state should have the ability to set fair wages for workers in  
California -- not have the federal government tell us we need to sink  
to their level," said Angie Wei, of the labor federation, before the  
vote.

The other heavily lobbied feature of the bill was the estate tax cuts.

The bill would have increased the amount of an estate exempt from  
taxes to $5 million for an individual and $10 million for a couple by  
2015. Estates of up to $25 million would have been taxed at the  
capital gains rate, which is 15 percent and scheduled to increase to  
20 percent. The top rate on larger estates would have fallen to 30  
percent.

"We hope that in the Senate a lot of Democrats who are for a  
permanent solution to the death tax will vote for the package,'' Mike  
Donohue, spokesman for the National Federation of Independent  
Business, said before the vote.

But Donohue acknowledged that by putting diverse elements together in  
one package, drafters could have overplayed their hand. "It's the  
danger of packages like this. The tip credit is an issue that's  
important to senators from some states and it gives them a reason to  
oppose it,'' he said.

In addition to California, the six other states were Washington,  
Oregon, Nevada, Alaska, Montana and Minnesota.

E-mail Edward Epstein at eepstein at sfchronicle.com.


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