President Bush today said he could suppport an increased minimum wage but only if Congress also established a sub-minimum training wage he said would prevent a loss of jobs. ``I've always said that my position on minimum wage is that I would want it linked to a training wage, to a differential of sorts, so that you don't throw people out of work by raising the minimum wage,'' Bush said at a White House news conference. Bush said he had a ``certain flexibility'' on the question and would await the recommendations of Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole. At no point did he say outright that he supported raising the minumum wage, which has been $3.35 an hour since 1981. The president's comments came a day after Mrs. Dole told the Senate Labor Committee that Bush's support of legislation to raise the minimum wage would hinge on whether lawmakers included a training wage in the legislation. Bush's stand puts him in opposition to the head of the Labor Committee, Edward M. Kennedy, who said Thursday he remained opposed to a training wage and was confident his bill to raise the minimum hourly wage from $3.35 an hour to $4.55 would pass this year. Bush during the presidential campaign said in one interview that he supported some increase in the minimum wage, provided it was coupled with the training wage, although at other times his campaign said Bush was against an increase. Mrs. Dole, sworn in to her Cabinet post four hours before the hearing, was not specific as to how high Bush favors raising the minimum wage or what kind of time limit to set on the training wage. Employers would be limited as to the length of time they could pay the training wage to a new worker. ``We have really not at this point had an opportunity to work through the legislative agenda so I do want an opportunity to go through this before I get into any great detail of what he is willing to support,'' Mrs. Dole said. ``We're going to get it raised this year for sure,'' Kennedy, D-Mass., said at the hearing, which he called to assess the impact of projected labor shortages and the prospect of averting them by training welfare recipients and lower-income workers for high-skills jobs. Mrs. Dole said she could help erase the so-called ``skills gap'' in the American labor force by working to better coordinate the numerous job-training programs of government agencies and placing an emphasis on training the poor and unemployed. ``Minorities, the disadvantaged, persons with disabilities and other groups traditionally left behind will be in demand by employers as never before, but only if they are qualified,'' Mrs. Dole said. In a brief interview after the hearing, Kennedy, who introduced his minimum wage bill Wednesday, said ``my views haven't changed'' and that he would try to get the bill through the Senate without a provision for a training wage. Organized labor supports the increased minimum wage but opposes the training wage, in part because it believes some employers would use the lower wage to cut their costs by hiring people at the training wage and laying off higher-paid workers. Mrs. Dole said she would support adding language to the legislation to prevent that. Kennedy's bill would raise the minimum wage from $3.35 an hour, its level since 1981, to $4.55 in three annual increases of 40 cents an hour. The wage then would be indexed to 50 percent of the hourly average income for U.S. workers. A similar bill has been introduced in the House.
President Bush said that he could support an increased minimum wage only if Congress also established a sub-minimum training wage. Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole had told the Senate of that position the day before. Senator Kennedy, chairman of the committee is opposed to the training wage. Mrs. Dole said that the "skills gap" could be erased through job-training programs. Organized labor believes that some employers would use the lower, training wage for hiring and would lay off higher paid workers. Kennedy's bill would increase the wage from $3.35 to $4.55 per hour in three annual 40 cent increases.