Washington ? The Republican-controlled Senate smothered a proposed election-year increase in the minimum wage Wednesday, rejecting Democratic claims that it was past time to boost the $5.15 hourly pay floor that has been in effect for nearly a decade.

The 52-46 vote was eight short of the 60 needed for approval under budget rules and came one day after House Republican leaders made clear they do not intend to allow a vote on the issue, fearing it might pass.

The Senate vote marked the ninth time since 1997 that Democrats there have proposed – and Republicans have blocked – a stand-alone increase in the minimum wage. The debate fell along predictable lines.

“Americans believe that no one who works hard for a living should have to live in poverty. A job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. He said a worker paid $5.15 an hour would earn $10,700 a year, “almost $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three.”

Kennedy also said that lawmakers’ annual pay has risen by roughly $30,000 since the last increase in the minimum wage.

Republicans said a minimum wage increase would wind up hurting the low-wage workers that Democrats said they want to help. “For every increase you make in the minimum wage, you will cost some of them their jobs,” said Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.

Organized labor supports the legislation, and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said that contrary to some impressions, most minimum wage workers are adults, not teenagers, and many of them are women.