A United Auto Workers official in Indianapolis said Monday that base wages in Detroit's auto industry are already in line with pay for workers in most Japanese car plants in the United States.

"I'd contend we're there today," said Maurice Davison, director of the UAW's Indianapolis-based Region Three, which represents union members in Indiana and Kentucky.

Davison was refuting claims by Republicans in Congress who say union pay should fall to match salaries paid by Honda and Toyota as a condition for a bailout.

After the UAW balked at wage concessions two weeks ago, the Senate scuttled a bailout measure for Detroit. That left it to the White House to come forward Friday with an aid package to keep Chrysler and General Motors out of bankruptcy.

President George W. Bush's package includes $17.4 billion in federal loans and refers to union pay cuts as a condition of the bailout, but leaves it up to the incoming Obama administration to enforce the demand.

The union will consider concessions in work rules and other cost-cutting measures to help the automakers survive, but UAW base wages are already in line with the majority of the Japanese auto plants operating in the U.S., Davison said. He represented the union on a panel discussing the future of the auto industry in Indiana.

UAW members employed by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors average $29 an hour in base pay, a level that trails Honda's pay and bonuses and slightly exceeds Toyota's pay, Davison said.

Davison said Southern lawmakers demanding UAW pay cuts may be representing the interests of Japanese automakers looking for lower wages in their own U.S. plants.

"I ask you to watch this potential hidden agenda from our GOP friends in the South who represent all these transplants," Davison told the audience of about 100.

A successful effort to lower the UAW base wage could give Toyota latitude to cut wages in its own U.S. plants at a time when the Japanese automaker is losing money worldwide, Davison said.

The Senate rejected a bailout after lawmakers led by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., demanded that the UAW scale back pay levels.

Honda workers averaged $31 an hour last year, including bonuses, while Toyota averaged about $27 an hour, Davison said, noting that wages for people newly hired by GM will start at about $15 an hour.

The union accepted a lower wage for new hires in contract negotiations with the Detroit automakers several years ago.

GM, which employs about 72,000 U.S. autoworkers, could hire as many as 6,000 workers at that $15 hourly level once the economy recovers and auto production rebounds, he said. The two-tier scale could give GM a decided wage advantage over Toyota.

Wages in the Honda plant that opened in October in Greensburg start at $14.84 an hour and will rise next year to about $18.50.

Robert Scott, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, also appeared on the panel in Indianapolis, where he showed an illustration that put total pay for a UAW member at $71 an hour and pay for a worker in a Japanese U.S. plant at $49 an hour.

The biggest difference was $16 an hour included in the compensation of the UAW member to cover retirees' pension and health-care costs. Because the Detroit automakers have been in business for more than a century, they have more retirees, including 91,000 GM retirees in Indiana.

These legacy costs for the Japanese carmakers amount to $3 an hour because their U.S. plants have fewer retirees. Most of the Japanese auto plants here in the U.S. have been open since 1985.