(FORTUNE Magazine) – Is the Secretary of Labor warming to the idea of a mandatory raise? That's the gist of a recent memo Robert Reich sent to the President proposing that the Labor Department study a plan to increase the minimum wage from the current $4.25 per hour to $4.50 in 1994 and thereafter index it to the cost of living. Reich's inclination to increase wages represents a departure from the views he held just several months ago. Back in May, he was quoted saying: ''I don't think that now is the time to propose an increase in the minimum wage. We still have an employment problem. I don't want to do anything to discourage new employment.'' Unemployment continues to be within 0.2 percentage point of where it was when Reich first voiced those reservations. Among the information being marshaled in support of a higher wage is a study by Lawrence Katz, chief economist in the Labor Department, whose report on the fast-food industry in Texas showed that raising the minimum did nothing to curb job growth. But Katz's findings are being challenged. Richard Berman, executive director of the Employment Policies Institute, a Washington, D.C., research group representing large retailers, says Katz looked only at effects over the first four months after a minimum-wage increase and didn't take account of longer-term moves toward self-service and automation that often follow higher mandated wages.