BUSH SIGNS BOOST IN MINIMUM WAGE

President Bush signed into law Friday legislation to boost the minimum wage to $4.25 an hour, promising the first increase since 1981 will "put more money into the pockets of our workers."

The White House ceremony marked the formal end of a nearly decadelong deadlock between the Congress and the Reagan and Bush administrations over the issue of raising the wage level.With House and Senate leaders at his side, Bush signed the legislation and commended the bipartisanship that crafted a compromise. After the brief ceremony in the Oval office, House Speaker Tom Foley, D-Wash., said he, too, was "very satisfied . . .

it's long overdue."

The new law will raise the present $3.35 per hour minimum wage to $4.25, with a 45-cent step next April and another in April 1991.

To win the hike, Congress agreed to a demand by Bush that a $3.35 training wage be included for first-time job holders, aged 16 to 19.