At $5.15 an hour and with no days off, Darius Marshall earns $10,712 a year working at his minimum-wage job as a security guard in North Charleston.

For a 40-hour week in South Carolina, Marshall grosses just $206.

In Illinois, on the other hand, he could make at least $7.50 an hour under measures approved recently by the Legislature there, boosting income to at least $15,600 a year.

South Carolina is one of eight states that does not require employers to pay workers more than the federal minimum wage standard. That could change under proposed legislation in Columbia that calls for setting a minimum pay scale in the Palmetto State at $6.15, or $1 more an hour.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to fast-track efforts to boost the federal minimum wage and could seek to bring a bill directly to the House floor in January.

The new Democrat-controlled 110th Congress convenes Jan. 4, and Pelosi of California has made it clear that raising the federal minimum wage is a top priority, one she wants the House of Representatives to accomplish in its first 100 hours of legislative business.

For lower-income workers such as Marshall, 37, even a small increase could make a big difference.

"I could maybe move to a nicer place," he said last week.

Supporters of an increase, mostly unions and advocacy groups for the poor, say minimum-wage earners live well below the poverty line. Earning more will help put food on their tables and clothes on their backs, they say.

Opponents, which include sectors of the business community that typically pay lower wages, maintain an increase will only boost unemployment by leading to layoffs and business closings. They argue that many minimum-wage earners are teenagers or entry-level workers with few skills who need jobs to break into the labor force and who are not the primary breadwinners in their households.

Raising the issue

The minimum wage was enacted in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment Standards Administration, the first minimum wage was 25 cents an hour.

The last increases came nearly 10 years ago.

"Can you imagine not having had a raise since 1997?" said Sue Berkowitz, director of the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, a Columbia-based group that provides legal services for the poor.

Increasing the minimum wage would help the economy because most of the affected workers would spend any additional income on staples, such as food, utilities and clothing, Berkowitz said.

Erin McKee, president of the Greater Charleston Central Labor Council, a local association of unions that supports an increase, says she doesn't know anyone who is paying less for groceries, rent and other bills since the last increase.

"If you work 40 hours a week, you shouldn't be at the poverty level," she said.

Nationwide, the minimum wage hike would affect 1.9 million hourly workers who make minimum wage - janitors and store clerks - and workers who get tips, who can make less than minimum wage.

When adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage of $5.15 is at its lowest level since 1955.

Workers who would gain from any boost make up just a sliver of the total labor pool. About 1.8 percent of South Carolina's work force earns at or below minimum wage. Nationally, the figure is about 1.4 percent, according to the Labor Department.

One-quarter of hourly workers who make minimum wage are teenagers, but about half are older than 25, according to the Labor Department.

The General Assembly could take up a minimum-wage debate under a bill filed in advance of the 2007 legislative term. Two state senators, Darrell Jackson, D-Hopkins, and Gerald Malloy, D-Hartsville, sponsored the bill, which is similar to legislation passed in North Carolina last year.

Jackson said last week he hopes for an early hearing on the issue and quick passage come January. If a federal bill passes sooner and raises the wage higher than his proposal, he said he'll withdraw the legislation. Jackson called the current requirement of $5.15 an hour "a joke," saying workers at the bottom of the earnings ladder deserve a livable wage.

Waging a debate

Not everyone shares the senators' views, including the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce and South Carolina Chamber of Commerce. The pro-business groups oppose any mandated increase, stating it's not the role of government to determine what employers pay.

"We think the marketplace can take care of itself on this issue," said Mary Graham, vice president of public policy for the Charleston Metro Chamber.

Marcia Purday, vice president of communications for the Columbia-based South Carolina Chamber, said her group may change its position if a compromise bill were introduced, such as one that increased the wage but also reduced taxes and exemption levels.

Other opponents, such as the National Restaurant Association, say lesser-skilled employees would suffer the most from an increase. Higher wages would attract workers with more skills and experience, and the lesser-skilled employees would have to compete with them for jobs.

But supporters of an increase, such as Jackson and Malloy, point to studies that suggest states suffer no ill-effects when businesses are forced to pay higher wages.

A report released late last month by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning Washington-based think tank, studied the 17 states and the District of Columbia that raised the minimum wage between 1997 and 2005. It found the states that increased the minimum rate generally saw higher wages without reduced employment.

The median minimum wage of those states is $1.40 over the federal wage. The institute concluded that evidence of employment loss, including jobs at restaurants and bars, was "nonexistent."

Reach Peter Hull at 937-5594 or phull@postandcourier.com.