The Missouri Chamber of Commerce is planning to fight the proposed state minimum wage increase that will raise the rate from $7.25 per hour to $7.35 per hour starting in 2013. This is accompanied by the usual partisan posturing in which they claim that it will drive Missouri employers out of the state to states which do not have such an increase.
But the fact of the matter is that this is simply not true. Washington, with a similar law as Missouri's, has the highest minimum wage in the country, at $9.19 per hour yet their unemployment rate is no higher than the rest of the country. Another common argument against the minimum wage is that there would be inflation, yet we were able to buy groceries and other goods cheaper there than we can here.
What the Chamber of Commerce ignores is that when wages go up, people have more disposable income and thus spend more money on the economy -- to the very people whom the Chamber of Commerce says this will hurt.
The state Minimum Wage law was passed as a 2006 ballot initiative by the people of Missouri. It passed overwhelmingly, including in Worth County. The Chamber of Commerce says that they are going to work with the legislature to get it overturned. The problem with that is that they are ignoring the wishes of the people of Missouri, who passed this law overwhelmingly.
The Missouri legislature now has a veto-proof Republican majority. But here is the catch -- they have to use that power responsibly, or the people of Missouri will simply vote them out in two years time. If they wish to be able to maintain that sort of a majority, they must respect the wishes of voters even if it goes against certain special interests. The people of Missouri have spoken. The best thing that all parties can do is to respect the wishes of the voters and focus on other ways to open Missouri for business.
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