Representative Jerry Nolte (r-33), champion of working people, prefiled a bill to keep Missouri’s minimum wage from exceeding the federal minimum wage:
FIRST REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE BILL NO. 61
96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLYINTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES NOLTE (Sponsor), SCHARNHORST, SCHAD, ALLEN, AND SCHNEIDER (Co-sponsors).
0206L. 01I D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal section 290.502, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to the minimum wage.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Section 290.502, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 290.502, to read as follows:
290.502. 1. Except as may be otherwise provided pursuant to sections 290.500 to 290.530, effective January 1, 2007, every employer shall pay to each employee wages at the rate of $6.50 per hour, or wages at the same rate or rates set under the provisions of federal law as the prevailing federal minimum wage applicable to those covered jobs in interstate commerce, whichever rate per hour is higher.
2. The minimum wage shall be increased or decreased on January 1, 2008, and on January 1 of successive years, by the increase or decrease in the cost of living. On September 30, 2007, and on each September 30 of each successive year, the director shall measure the increase or decrease in the cost of living by the percentage increase or decrease as of the preceding July over the level as of July of the immediately preceding year of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) or successor index as published by the U.S. Department of Labor or its successor agency, with the amount of the minimum wage increase or decrease rounded to the nearest five cents.
3. The minimum wage calculated under this section shall not exceed the federal minimum wage.
[emphasis in original]
You’ve got to wonder what organized labor thinks of that.
Could the Courts Outlaw the Minimum Wage?
By Adam Cohen Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010….At $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage is almost impossible to survive on. Someone who works a 40-hour week and earns the minimum wage makes around $15,000 a year – or about 70% of the official poverty level.
In recent years, while the wealthiest Americans have gotten richer and richer – the top 25 hedge-fund managers personally took in more than $25 billion last year – minimum-wage workers are being left behind. Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage today is 17% lower than it was in 1968.
Most Americans across the political spectrum support strong minimum-wage laws. Many liberals like them because they put more money in the pockets of people who desperately need it. Many conservatives favor them because they make it worthwhile to have a job – and reward people for getting out of bed every day and doing an honest day’s work….
Many, not all.