Minimum Wage Increase. A proposal by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) would increase the national minimum wage by one dollar, from $5.15 per hour to $6.15 per hour. Senator Don Nickles (R-OK) opposed the amendment, observing that \"we should not be passing a law in a tax cut bill to say it is against the law anywhere in the country to work for $6.10 an hour, that the federal government, in its infinite wisdom, decided if you don\’t have a job that pays at least $6.15 an hour you should be unemployed.\"
Sen. Kennedy\’s measure, an amendment to S. 1429, was rejected by the Senate on July 30, 1999 by a vote of 46-54 (Roll Call 239). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
