The Reagan administration may be willing to relax its opposition to an increase in the minimum wage if Congress agrees to dilute the legislation significantly, Labor Secretary William Brock indicated. Mr. Brock said in an interview that exemptions from the minimum wage would be necessary for youths who lack entry-level job skills and for small businesses. He also said that Congress would have to drop plans to tie future rises in the minimum wage to the average wage for all non-supervisory private workers after 1990. If Congress favors "those positive components, we can sit down and talk about it," the secretary said. But the administration will remain opposed to any broad minimum-wage boost that results in "massive disemployment" of young people, he added. This is the first indication that the administration would be willing to bend its staunch resistance to any increase in the minimum wage, which hasn't risen for six years. Earlier this week, during the Senate Labor Committee's first hearing on a bill to boost the minimum wage to $4.65 an hour in 1990 from the current $3.35, Mr. Brock reiterated his opposition to an increase. He said boosting the level would worsen problems that many poorly educated, unskilled youths face in trying to find work in a more complex job market. "I am increasingly convinced that a number of people . . . are not only unemployed, but unemployable," Mr. Brock testified. "I don't want to take a chance that we add to that problem" by boosting the minimum wage and thereby pricing young people out of the job market. In yesterday's interview, the secretary suggested the administration might accept a higher minimum wage, though perhaps smaller than in the pending bill, if Congress makes certain changes in the measure. The administration has long supported a subminimum wage for youths, along with stressing the need for job-training and education programs. Mr. Brock's suggestions for modifying the minimum-wage bill aren't likely to receive a warm welcome from congressional advocates for raising the minimum. They say the wage level has lagged far behind the increased cost of living since 1981, seriously eroding low-paid workers' purchasing power. Most House Labor Committee members oppose any youth subminimum wage, the small-business exemption has foundered in the past, and wage-indexing must stay in the bill, a staff official for the panel said. Rep. Augustus Hawkins (D., Calif.), chairman of the House Labor panel and co-author of the minimum-wage bill with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.), chairman of the Senate committee, said that if Mr. Brock will put his ideas into a bill, the House committee will give it a hearing. Currently, it's too early to talk compromise, Mr. Hawkins said. But an aide to a Republican senator said: "Everybody is aware of the possibility" of a compromise. "Many people feel that some kind of increase in the minimum wage is inevitable," he said, so an effort is afoot to see how Congress can "do as little harm . . . and as much good as possible," while boosting the wage level. Some congressional labor experts said Mr. Brock personally would like to deal on Capitol Hill for a minimum-wage compromise. One congressional staffer concluded: "Apparently he's making some progress" within the Reagan administration.
The Reagan Administration may relax its opposition to an increase in the minimum wage if Congress agrees to dilute the legislation significantly. Labor Secretary Brock says it must exempt youths lacking entry-level job skills and drop plans for future raises. Brock said that a number of people are not only unemployed but unemployable and that increasing the wage would add to the problem. Rep Hawkins said that if Brock put his ideas into a bill it would be given a hearing. But, he said, it's too early to talk compromise. An aide to a Republican Senator said that many people feel that an increase in the wage is inevitable.