The House Trade and Job Creation Committee on Thursday passed Jerry Nolte’s  bill (HB 61), without debate, along to the House floor. The bill would completely eliminate the cost of living adjustments that Missouri voters overwhelmingly (76%) approved in 2006. It would instead tie our minimum wage to the federal level, which is inadequate.

h/t to FiredUp! for this screen shot

Every year since that proposition passed, the legislature has attacked it. Last year, they tried to eliminate the minimum wage for teens. The year before that, they succeeded in clipping the minimum wage for waiters and waitresses.  I’d get all “how dare they!” about it if it weren’t so commonplace now for the lege to flip voters the finger. This year alone, in addition to going after COLAs, our Corpublicans are eviscerating the puppy mill proposition and gutting the energy bill Missourians overwhelmingly approved in 2008 requiring utilities to obtain given levels of their power from alternative sources. It’s starting to feel like Russia in this state: like we’re being asked to pretend that elections matter. For all the right wing talk of strict constructionism, these arrogant SOBs need a refresher course in the meaning of democracy. It’s a simple concept really. When we the people vote overwhelmingly in favor of something, the government is supposed to heed our voice. And it’s not like we asked them to carpet our homes in mink. We simply agreed that the moral course of action is to require employers to pay people enough to survive on in return for their forty hour a week contribution to society. We barely even mandated survival wages, because the annual minimum wage for a full time worker is $15,000, while the poverty line for a family of three is $18,000.

And the arrogance of the Republican legislature sits atop its hypocrisy. These people, who are junking a state law in favor of a federal law–even though the feds want no jurisdiction in the matter–these are the same people who are purple-faced about states’ rights when it comes to the Affordable Care Act, ranting about the federal government ignoring the will of the voters.

So Nolte’s bill is out of committee in the House, and the Senate has a companion bill (SB 110). Sitting on our hands over this will leave 54,000 Missourians more desperately scrounging for pennies. At least make the Scrooges feel some heat. Call or e-mail your rep and your senator. (If they’re Democrats, you can thank them in advance for doing the right thing. Most of them don’t get anywhere near the thanks they deserve.) Click here, fill in your zip code and their info will pop up for you.

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 ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED 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.