{"id":7849,"date":"2022-01-13T23:07:09","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T05:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/empowermissouri.org\/?p=7849"},"modified":"2023-08-07T20:29:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T01:29:10","slug":"mo-minimum-wage-just-went-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowermissouri.org\/es\/mo-minimum-wage-just-went-up\/","title":{"rendered":"The MO Minimum Wage Just Went Up Again\u2013 But Is It Enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2018, Missourians resoundingly passed a phased increase to the minimum wage to $12\/hour over five years. When the bill passed, it was estimated that 600,000 Missourians would benefit from an increase in their wages, meaning that around 15 percent of Missouri adults were making the minimum wage.  The plan called for wages to rise each January, and as of this month, the Missouri minimum wage is $11.15\/hour.  Next year, the minimum wage will rise to $12\/hour, completing the currently planned increase. <\/span><\/p>\n

During the shake-ups in the American workforce over the last two years, driven heavily by COVID-19, we\u2019ve seen employers begin to recognize that many workers simply won\u2019t work for minimum wage\u2013 despite the increases.  Many jobs that have traditionally been minimum wage (including fast food, restaurant staff, cashiers, and childcare providers) are now offering starting wages between $13-$15\/hour, significantly higher than MO minimum wage\u2013 and still struggling to fill vacancies.  <\/span><\/p>\n

So what should the minimum wage be, and why does it matter? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The U.S. passed its first federal minimum wage law back in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act.  The legislation was signed into law by President Roosevelt and set the minimum wage at $0.25\/hour.  (Interestingly, the initial legislation was written to pass a $0.40\/hour wage, but <\/span>it had to be scaled back<\/span><\/a> to appease Congressmen from Southern states.) Minimum wage largely rose in step with national productivity growth through the 40s, 50s and 60s, but it has remained mostly stagnant for the last 50 years. <\/span>According to one study from the Center for Economic & Policy Research<\/span><\/a>, minimum wage would be $24\/hour in the United States today if it had risen in step with national productivity growth.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Another approach to calculating a fair minimum wage is to make it a living wage, ensuring that families could afford average expenses such as housing, utilities, groceries, transportation, and medical care. According to the <\/span>Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s Living Wage Calculator,<\/span><\/a> the current living wage across the United States is $16.54, far higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25.<\/span><\/p>\n

With either of these approaches, it is clear that $11.15\/hour, while an improvement, does not reflect what workers are worth in this country.  For several years, labor organizers have been pushing for a $15\/hour minimum wage.  While this number would neither quite measure up to the national living wage and come nowhere close to matching wages to the productivity of our economy, there seems to be some consensus that this increase would make significant improvements to the lives of nearly 40 million American workers.  According to a study by the <\/span>Economic Policy Institute<\/span><\/a>, when examining the <\/span>Raise the Wage Act of 2019 (a bill that would have raised the federal minimum wage to $15\/hour in six steps over five years), <\/span>a $15\/hour minimum wage would have the following impacts: <\/span><\/p>\n