(Corrects typographical error in 15th paragraph.)

June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Memo to President Bush:

I know you don't often take advice from former Clinton administration economic officials -- especially those asking you to join hands with liberal Senate Democrats. Nonetheless, Mr. President, you would help both working Americans and your own political interests if you picked up the phone and told Senator Edward Kennedy that he should take another shot at trying to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour.

Yes, his amendment to do that failed yesterday, even though it garnered a majority of votes. Nonetheless, I believe that with your support he could get the seven votes that would provide him with the 60 needed to pass Senate procedural hurdles.

Before anyone on your team starts raising red flags, let me make clear that I get your concerns. You probably want to point out that a minimum wage is a form of price control; that it is no substitute for a comprehensive economic strategy to foster innovation, skills and entrepreneurship to create new jobs. And yes, when raised too high, it can come at the expense of jobs for minority youths.

So why should a conservative Republican president seek a Bush-Kennedy bill? Let me give you three reasons.

Dignity for American Workers:

First, on the issue of price controls, we have to acknowledge that ignoring the lopsided bargaining power that can exist in labor markets and the workplace risks offending core American values. We don't allow an employer to condition a job on sex from a single mother of three, even if she would take the deal to keep food on her table.

Economic Dignity

While offering a low wage may not be as despicable as sexual harassment, most Americans would agree that economic dignity should also limit how little that employer can pay that same woman -- even if she was desperate enough to accept $3 an hour.

President Bill Clinton appealed to these values when he called for increasing the minimum wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit because no full-time working parent should have to raise children in poverty.

The power of the belief that hard work should result in a modicum of economic dignity is no doubt behind the fact that 86 percent of Americans support a higher minimum wage, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll.

A Raise for 15 Million Americans:

Second, raising the minimum wage isn't only about helping teenagers in their summer jobs. Of Americans who now make the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, 35 percent are sole breadwinners and the typical minimum-wage worker brings in half of total family income.

Getting Bumped

And while 7.3 million would directly get a raise, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that an additional 8 million would likely get an indirect bump up -- meaning a raise for 15 million Americans.

This won't completely compensate for the fact that typical workers have actually seen a slight wage decline over the last four years (adjusted for inflation), but it would show you are sensitive to the wage issue and growing concerns about rising poverty and inequality.

An increase of the minimum wage to $7.25 would also be a strong complement to the immigration bill that you and Senator Kennedy have worked on. While you are right that immigration is on the whole a plus for our nation, academic studies show that it can hurt the wages of the least skilled workers. An increase in the minimum wage would be one way to help compensate for the potential wage loss that some workers might suffer due to expanded immigration.

Reasonable

A Reasonable Bill:

Finally, as to the fear that a higher minimum wage would crimp labor markets, the fact is, the Kennedy bill is quite reasonable and suggests boosting the minimum wage in three 70- cent stages. Since 1997, when the minimum wage was last raised, it has lost a fifth of its real value. Because of inflation the $5.15 wage today is the equivalent of $4.23 in 1996 -- lower than the $4.25 level before Clinton raised it.

The claims by opponents that minimum wage increases cost jobs look weaker and weaker over time. No one has yet rebutted convincingly David Card and Alan Krueger's study that compared fast-food jobs on the border of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and found no decrease in lower-wage jobs after New Jersey raised its state minimum wage.

Rather, the Economic Policy Institute, Fiscal Policy Institute, and Center for American Progress have all found that states that raised minimum wages above the federal level have had just as good, if not better, employment and small business performance than states that haven't.

Heading Off Democrats

The truth is Mr. President, I'd be surprised if your political advisers wouldn't support this advice. After all, there is real hope in Democratic circles that the seven states seeking minimum-wage referendums in November will increase turnout among Democrats and progressive independents.

If you want to convince those voters that these referendums are unnecessary, you would have to persuade congressional Republican to forgo their normal strategy of offering a modest minimum wage bill with a poison pill -- usually restrictions on overtime pay -- or combining it with a controversial estate tax bill. As you know, these maneuvers are designed to ensure that the bill never reaches your desk.

A little help for your politics and for 15 million Americans is only a phone call away.

(Gene Sperling, author of ``The Pro-Growth Progressive,'' was President Bill Clinton's top economic adviser. He is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Gene Sperling in Washington at gsperling@cfr.org.

Last Updated: June 22, 2006 15:01 EDT