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Support for the president's health care reform legislation seems to be slipping away, both in Congress and with the public. And that suits the discount store industry's Washington lobbyists just fine.

Over the past few months, IMRA has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the administration's plan--particularly provisions mandating employer-paid coverage of workers, including part-timers.

After crunching the numebrs, IMRA concluded that the Clinton health reform plan would eliminate or seriously jeopardize 20% of all discount store industry jobs.

Given that one-fifth of the 1.9 million private sector jobs created in the United States since 1991 are in the discount industry, IMRA's concerns about the employment impact of the president's health plan deserve particularly careful consideration here in Washington.

But so far, there's no indication that the Clinton administration even recognizes the potential for job destruction associated with a mandated health benefit plan.

When that issue was raised at a recent White House-sponsored "Town Hall" meeting by a business owner in North Carolina, Hillary Rodham Clinton said the administration's plan would actually reduce the burden on many employers by making health insurance more affordable.

As for the concerns over "disemployment," she likened the arguments to those advanced against proposals to raise the minimum wage.

"Every time somebody says that they are going to raise the minimum wage, there is a big hue and cry about all the jobs that will be put at risk," Mrs. Clinton said. "There is ... no evidence whatsoever that jobs have been lost" due to rising minimum wage levels.

If the First Lady really can find no evidence that a higher minimum wage is a disincentive to employment, she should look more closely at retailing, or food service, or other industries that provide most of the job opportunities for the unskilled, inexperienced and disadvantaged.

Politicians like Mrs. Clinton tend to lose sight of the fact that relatively few of the casualties associated with government mandated increases in labor costs are individuals who are thrown out of work as a result.

More commonly, the victims of minimum wage increases are individuals whose hope of finding work --even an entry-level position at a low hourly wage--is reduced or eliminated by the government's action.

These unseen, uncounted casualties of a rising minimum wage are real enough for business people who must cut back hiring plans.

By mandating employer-paid health benefits for part-time workers, the president's plan will have a detrimental effect on employment prospects for the most vulnerable members of the American work force.

By effectively forcing discount retailers to consolidate part-time jobs into full-time positions, the administration's health plan would create disproportionate hardship for single parents, students, seniors and others who need employment but can't work full-time.

The Clintons may be able to argue convincingly that injury to these workers and their employers willbe offset by greater benefits from health care reform.

If so, they should make that case. Denying that the plan would reduce employment apportunities only serves to contribute to the growing skepticism about Clinton's health reforms.