Letter to the Editor: Some minimum wage points get lost in debate

Why does it take more than 2,500 words in ballot initiative language to ask voters if they want to increase the minimum wage to $6.50? Possibly it’s because of all the other things this bill does that are not being talked about.

Did you know …

• that you are voting on an “indexed” minimum wage increase that grows annually, not just in 2007? Minimum wage could reach $10 an hour in a matter of a few years.

• that the annual increase is not based on Missouri’s consumer price index? Rather it’s based on the CPI of the nation’s largest urban areas. Since the national urban rate of inflation is substantially higher than Missouri’s rate, we are essentially “importing inflation” to calculate our state’s minimum wage.

• that 86.3 percent of workers who would get a pay raise if this passes are teenagers or spouses living in homes with family incomes exceeding $57,000? This law does not help low-income families. A statewide earned income tax credit would target those in need much better.

• that if this ballot measure passes, Missouri will have the highest minimum wage in the Midwest within two years? This will cost Missouri untold loss of economic expansion and new job location. It will be a boon to our neighboring states.

• that an independent study by the Show Me Institute predicts that passage of the minimum wage proposition would cost small businesses $339 million and cost more than 18,000 low-income workers their jobs? The sticker shock will be staggering. You will pay more for meals, clothing, groceries and other staples. The money to pay this enormous price tag has to come from somewhere.

• that the St. Louis Post Dispatch (David Nicklaus), the Kansas City Star (Tom McClanahan) and the Columbia Daily Tribune (Henry Waters III) have all editorialized against Proposition B? These newspapers are not exactly considered conservative publications, but they know Prop B is bad for Missouri and its low-wage workers.

All of the above facts are substantiated in two recent studies on the effect of a minimum wage increase in Missouri, one by the Employment Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., and the other by the Show Me Institute in St. Louis.

John Pelzer

Missouri Restaurant Association, Jefferson City[[In-content Ad]]