Minimum Wage Bill Heads To Missouri Senate

I suggest that we allow Mr. Grisamore to work at a minimum wage job and not get insurance that is paid for by Missouri taxpayers.  Would he last in his $200,000 home that he only paid a dollar for if he were forced to live in poverty?

Minimum wage bill heads to Missouri Senate


By Rudi Keller Columbia Daily Tribune

Published March 3, 2011 at 1:57 p.m.

JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri House voted 92-60 Thursday to take away a voter-approved cost-of-living adjustment for minimum wage workers.

After nearly an hour of debate that brought passionate pleas for workers countered by arguments that businesses need certainty in costs, the House approved the measure that is a top business priority for the legislative session.

The bill did not, however, receive the 109 votes needed to override a veto if it makes it through the Senate, and nine Republicans joined a solid Democratic vote against the measure.

In a plea to the House, Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford, D-St. Louis, asked for the chamber to defeat the bill so families could keep up with inflation. “Let's not pass this bill to make sure that Missouri workers are mired in poverty and are little more than slaves,” she said.

But Rep. Jeff Grisamore, R-Lee's Summit, said small local businesses are being pushed under by rising costs, especially the increase in the minimum wage since 2006.


“It can be largely attributed to the fact that they as a small business owner cannot endure unlimited, unchecked increases in the minimum wage due to the cost of living,” Grisamore said.

Missouri's minimum wage was increased to $6.50 by voters in 2006, after 10 years without a change in the federal minimum of $5.15 an hour. The ballot measure included a provision that as prices changed, the minimum wage would change as well, but if the federal minimum was set above the state minimum, employers would have to pay the federal rate.

The bill sent to the Senate would permanently tie the state wage to the federal wage, preventing the inflation adjustment from pushing it above that level. The current state wage is $6.95 an hour, so employers are currently paying the federal rate.

The proposal setting the higher state rate and allowing for the inflation adjustment passed with 76 percent of the vote statewide.