Loma Pongmee made more than $7 an hour last summer working at the Lawrence Aquatic Center and loved the pay. But when summer ended, the 19-year-old Kansas University freshman found herself scooping ice cream for the federal minimum wage — $5.15 an hour.

Last month she quit the job.

“It wasn’t worth the money,” Pongmee said Monday. “It was a pretty easy job, but you wouldn’t want to work harder for that money.”

If the federal minimum wage were raised to above $7, she said, “that’d be nice.”

But that won’t happen this week.

The U.S. Senate lined up Monday to defeat dueling proposals to raise the minimum wage, one backed by organized labor, the other salted with pro-business provisions.

Congress last voted to raise the federal minimum wage to $5.15 an hour in 1996.

A Democratic proposal to raise the rate from $5.15 to $7.25 over three years failed 49-46 Monday in the Senate. A Republican proposal to increase it to $6.25 in two years fared even worse, losing 61-38.

While Democrats sought only an increase in the minimum wage with their proposal, Republicans expanded theirs to include business regulatory relief as well as tax breaks totaling $4.2 billion, most of it directed toward the restaurant industry.

“When you raise the minimum wage, you are pricing some workers out of the market,” said Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H. “It is an economic fact, and the proponents of raising the minimum wage like to dismiss this by saying we have a hard time measuring it and the economy is large.”

Because the Senate on Monday defeated two proposals to raise the minimum wage, people like Travis Brown 30, will continue to work for .15 an hour. Brown cleaned a truck Monday afternoon at Auto Plaza Car Wash, 2828 Four Wheel Drive.

Countered Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa: “This is a values issue. This is at the heart of what kind of country we want.”

It’s tough to say how many Kansans would have been affected by a change in the law. A spokesman for the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics said the agency didn’t track the number of workers making minimum wage.

But a 2004 debate in the Kansas Legislature suggested there are at least 24,000 residents employed in jobs — such as those at mom-and-pop restaurants — exempt from the federal minimum wage.

In those jobs, in which pay is often supplemented with tips from customers, Kansas law mandates a state minimum wage of $2.65 an hour — the lowest in the nation and lower than the minimum wage in the U.S. territories of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

At Kansas University, students in part-time jobs make a minimum of $6 an hour. Part-time nonstudent workers at KU make a minimum of $6.15 an hour.

A spokesman for the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry did not return calls for comment Monday.

Craig Miller, owner of Bucky’s Drive In, 2120 W. Ninth St., said he paid his 20 employees better than the federal minimum wage. But that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be affected by an increase.

“We would have to adjust all our employees’ salaries accordingly if it does go up,” he said. “Sometimes there’s price increases associated with that, but you never know.”

Miller said he didn’t have an opinion whether a raise was warranted.

On the Street: Should congress raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15? Minimum wage may rise first time in 8 years (03-06-05)

“With the price of gas increasing, everybody’s going to need some help,” he said. “It’ll be good for some people and bad for some others.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.