Bonior, HUD secretary say rate of minimum wage must increase

Cuomo, Rep. David Bonior (D-Mt. Clemens) and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) seized on a new report to urge at a press conference that Congress increase the minimum wage. The report indicated that many people receiving the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour could not afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment.

Minimum wage earners in Michigan would have to work 87 hours a week to afford the rent on a two-bedroom apartment, according to the study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a group dedicated to affordable housing for Americans.

Nationally, minimum wage earners would have to put in the equivalent of an 86-hour work week to afford the two-bedroom apartment. The coalition defines an affordable rental unit as one costing 30 percent of income.

Michigan was roughly in the middle of the 50 states in terms of housing affordability.

New York required 123 hours of work a week at minimum wage for the two-bedroom apartment's rent. A handful of southern states required 62 to 69 hours.

Cuomo said the report "makes a very blunt, bold, accurate statement - which is that affordable housing is out of reach for many Americans."

The problem could be attacked by raising the minimum wage while also reducing the cost of housing, Cuomo said. "We have to do both," he said. "The minimum wage in this country does not work."

Bonior has been leading the fight in the House to increase the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour by $1 over the course of two years. Kennedy is leading the push in the Senate.

"You can't put a decent roof over your head for $5.15 an hour," Bonior said.

"A Michigan mother, working full time at the minimum wage, still lives $3,200 below the poverty line," he said.

In 1996, Congress agreed to boost the federal minimum wage by 90 cents, rejecting conservative Republicans' arguments that raising the minimum wage would price many entry-level jobs out of the market.

It was a rare Democratic legislative victory during the first 20 months of Republican control of Congress that came only with the help of GOP moderates.

Cuomo also cited the report in arguing against cuts by Congress this year to the HUD budget. But Republicans said President Clinton proposed unrealistic increases for housing.

09-10-99