MINIMUM WAGE RISES; CHANGE TODAY MAY AID WOMEN WORKERS

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- A 45-cent hike in the minimum wage to $4.25 an hour, which takes effect today, may benefit women.

Rebecca Summary, chairperson of the economics department at Southeast Missouri State University, said a study has indicated that a minimum-wage boost can aid women in obtaining employment.

"As the minimum wage increases, the employers sometimes replace part-time teenage workers with full-time, adult women workers," she said.

"They are seen by the employers as being more stable and productive. According to the study, the employers want workers with experience and stability as long as they are paying more."

The Brookings Institute of Washington, D.C., conducted the study.

Summary said the findings of a similar study showed that, while the teenagers tended to lose jobs sometimes due to minimum wage hikes, they benefited in the long run by staying in school longer and were more likely to go on to higher education.

Minimum-wage earners tend to be teenagers working part time in fast food restaurants and in retail stores, she said.

"The new federal minimum wage rate will be $4.25 per hour for most employees," said Patrick Hand of the U.S. Department of Labor office in Kansas City. "The new rate replaces the current $3.80 figure."

The 45-cent increase comes exactly one year after an identical hike that raised it from $3.35 to $3.80 an hour.

The two increases in two years followed nine years in which the minimum wage remained constant. The previous increases, which culminated at $3.35 an hour in 1981, were the result of a bill passed during the Carter administration.

"What I have heard from employers is that it's too much, too quickly," said Walt Wildman, director of the Regional Commerce and Growth Association. "They said the timing is too compressed with the two (hikes in two years).

"The economy may not have had enough time since the last one. It would have been better to wait another year.

"The employers are not so much against the increase as the timing," he said.

Originally, the hike was scheduled to take effect nine months from now, but it was moved up.

Summary said the current increases are in part due to making up lost time. "Congress tries to keep the minimum wage at a certain percentage of the average manufacturing wage," she explained. "It was 40 percent at first, and above 50 percent in the 1960s and 1970s. It lost ground in the 1980s and bottomed out to 36 percent in 1990."

She said that employers, faced with the wage increase cutting into net profits, may respond with higher prices, reduced hours of operation, cutbacks in employee hours, or a combination of factors. She said local competition among similar stores or services would determine potential price hikes.

Cape Girardeau Assistant City Manager Al Stoverink said the city won't be cutting back on service. "We want to maintain present service levels," he asserted. "We will have the same number of employees and hours served."

Stoverink estimated that the two minimum-wage increases will cost the city an additional $100,000 annually. The increased costs will have to be paid out of the $10 million general revenue fund. "This adds to the difficulty of balancing an already tight budget," he said.

City employees earning minimum wage are mostly part-time, seasonal help, numbering up to 150, who work at the city parks, swimming pools and with recreation programs during the summer months.