For the second consecutive year, Missouri’s minimum wage will increase in 2014, rising to $7.50 an hour from $7.35.
The increase is automatically triggered by a cost-of-living formula. The increase, supported by groups such as Missouri Jobs with Justice, is opposed by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce.
Since 2006, Missouri’s minimum wage has been tied to a cost-of-living formula, after voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring an annual adjustment. Though the wage can fall under the formula, it has never done so. Between 2009 and 2012, the wage held steady at $7.25 an hour.
“As the minimum wage increases, the ability of employers to continue to employ workers is damaged — hitting entry level jobs especially hard,” Chamber President Dan Mehan said in a statement. “It causes uncertainty and positions Missouri to raise its minimum wage to uncompetitive levels. We opposed the change to the law in 2006 and maintain that wages should be set by market demand, not bureaucrats.”
The chamber did not respond to questions about Mehan’s statement, but a news release from the organization notes that the state’s minimum wage will be 25 cents higher than the federal minimum wage after the increase and higher than all neighboring states except Illinois.
The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce also opposes tying the minimum wage to the consumer price index and encourages lawmakers to eliminate it in its legislative priorities.
Lara Granich, director of Missouri Jobs with Justice, said that without cost-of-living adjustments, the minimum wage “lurches up” when lawmakers approve increases.
“What you want are those regular, steady increases that a COLA provides,” Granich said.
While lawmakers could place a constitutional amendment on a statewide ballot eliminating indexing, the General Assembly cannot outright get rid of it because of its constitutional status.
State Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, said that while he is philosophically opposed to minimum wage laws, there has not been much discussion about the minimum wage in the General Assembly.
“No, it’s not something that was a hard-driving issue, especially when you had a federal minimum wage that’s not far below,” Burlison said.
Jobs with Justice welcomed the increase but says it does not go far enough. A full-time, minimum wage worker will earn $15,600 a year after the increase, the group says, pointing to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, that shows a two-parent, two-child family living in Kansas City needs an annual income of $64,332 for a modest but decent living.
In Springfield, the 2013 Community Focus report names income and wages as a red flag for the city. The report says that average wages remain lower in Springfield than in other communities.
“Despite some increases in average wages over the last decade, Springfield still falls behind its peers and this wage gap is growing,” the report said.
Burlison said a high minimum wage may encourage high school students to drop out if they can make a living wage on their own. He said a low minimum wage or no minimum wage encourages people to improve themselves and their productivity.
“The notion that minimum wage should be enough for someone to live on, I would challenge that premise,” Burlison said.
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