I am planning to file for the 2014 Senate session legislation that recognizes the need to raise Missouri’s minimum wage. For it is time to provide citizens with the means to live above the poverty line.
On the federal level, the current minimum wage is $7.25, which calculates to $15,080 per year. On the state level, Missouri’s current minimum wage, except those jobs that are exempt, is $7.35, which on Jan. 1, 2014 will climb to a whopping $7.50. The federal poverty level sits at $23,550 for a family of four.
Minimum-wage jobs provide the predominant employment in this country for the so-called working poor. If you consider the cost of daycare for two children, with both parents working minimum-wage jobs, that family would still be teetering on the brink of poverty. The answer lies in raising the minimum wage.
In December, I will pre-file a bill I am sponsoring that I have titled the “Fair Minimum Wage Act,” which will increase the minimum wage in Missouri, upon voter approval, to $10 per hour effective Jan. 1, 2015. Several weeks ago citizens in the City of Sea Tac, Washington voted to increase the minimum wage there to $15 per hour, and there have been calls and protests across the country to have the minimum wage raised to $15 per hour for fast-food workers.
There are many sound business and economic reasons to increase the current minimum wage in Missouri. Businesses benefit by having a stable workforce that is focused on the job, rather than preoccupied with trying to survive on low wages. And our consumer-driven economy benefits from citizens having more disposable income to pump back into it through purchasing consumer items.
To those critics who oppose raising the minimum wage because of the argument that it will cause employers to cut back on jobs due to the increased cost for employees, I would point to the findings of Allan MacNeill, professor of Economics at Webster University.
“In recent decades a number of economists have empirically tested the proposition that higher minimum wages increase unemployment,” MacNeill writes.” Most studies have found little or no effect on employment levels in states that have raised their minimum wage. Some studies, in fact, find positive employment effects of higher minimum wages: lower worker turnover, which reduces costs, and higher demand, which increases sales and leads to greater economic growth.”
The studies only confirm that the more people are able to earn, the more they will spend, and the better their wages, the more likely they will stay with their job. Our state’s economy, which has consistently ranked at the bottom among states, needs a revitalizing jolt. I think the best way is to empower our workforce by paying our people a decent wage.
Nasheed (D) represents the 5th Senatorial District in the Missouri Senate, which serves a portion of St. Louis city.
