If Utah is to join other states in raising the minimum wage, it may take an act of Congress.
    A working group appointed by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to determine who, if anyone, would benefit from a hike in minimum pay has completed its yearlong study and failed to come to a consensus on a recommended course of action.
    The findings will be publicly released Thursday.
    Some on the 12-person committee question the value of the $50,000 study, saying it makes neither a compelling case for, nor against, an increase. Meanwhile, Huntsman is content to let the new Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress take the lead.
    "It appears Congress is ready to act and the president has signaled
    his support," said Huntsman's spokesman, Mike Mower, on Monday.
    Mower said Huntsman will pen a letter to members of Utah's congressional delegation urging their support of a federal minimum wage hike.
    Undeterred, state lawmakers Sen. Ed Mayne, D-West Valley City, and Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, are moving ahead with bills to raise Utah's rate above the current $5.15 an hour.
    "I don't know why we should shove our problems off on the feds if there's something we can do about it," said Hansen.
    Hansen is among those on the governor's working group disappointed with the study. "It was a small sample. And I don't know that we really got the core of how many single heads of households, or households, are earning minimum wage," Hansen said.
    The federal minimum wage has not changed in more than eight years.
    Voters in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio all agreed on Nov. 7 to state increases, bringing the total states with wages above the federal minimum to 29.
    Utah's Republican-controlled Legislature rejected similar proposals last year, despite public opinion polls showing overwhelming support.
    A key sticking point for Republicans: suspicion that most of Utah's 19,000 minimum wage earners are teenagers.
    Small-business owners and the restaurant industry also warned an increase could mean fewer jobs.
    Thursday's report will show fewer than 20 percent of Utah's minimum wage earners are teenagers, said work group member Bill Tibbitts.
    But the total number of workers that would benefit from a pay raise is "relatively small," Tibbitts said, adding, "Most of what is useful in the report is stuff we already knew or was compiled from other sources. The survey of employers was kind of a waste of time."
    Pamela Atkinson, an advocate for the homeless and Huntsman's point person on minimum wage, begs to differ, calling the report "interesting reading."
    It contains a demographic breakdown of minimum wage earners by gender, age and marital status, including estimates of how many Utah children would be helped by an increase. There's also a special section exploring whether low-wage jobs trap workers in poverty or promote upward career mobility.
    The report does not delve into how much Utah taxpayers might save in Medicaid and other social supports if wages improved.
    kstewart@sltrib.com
    "I don't know why we should shove our problems off on the feds if there's something we can do about it."
    REP. NEIL HANSEN
    D-Ogden