81.   But it also has tax cuts to offset the cost of the wage increase on small businesses, which they say are too grand.

82.   But in deference to a Fed tradition of linking wage increases and price increases, he is likely to mention the potential inflationary danger of a prolonged labor shortage.

83.   But not even senior Republicans believed the tactic could block the first wage increase in six years from becoming law.

84.   But Republicans said a wage increase would act as a barrier to the lowest-paid workers.

85.   But Republicans said a wage increase would act as a barrier to the lowest-paid, often least-skilled, workers.

86.   But several recent independent studies tend to show that such assumptions about job losses resulting from a wage increase may be overstated.

87.   But several labor experts said the accord was a draw because the union had to swallow a lower starting salary, even as it received a respectable wage increase.

88.   But officials said the Fed remains worried that rapid economic growth will spawn inflationary wage increases because of a lack of workers.

89.   But rising unemployment is beginning to undermine the wage increases that have helped to sustain consumer spending.

90.   But the wage increase has had little effect elsewhere.