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Editorial
St. Louis Post Dispatch, June 12, 2015

In the abstract, Mayor Francis Slay’s proposal to raise the minimum wage in the city of St. Louis over five years to $15 an hour is a splendid idea. Regrettably, in practice it might well make a dicey job market worse, undermining the city’s steps toward economic revival. Mr. Slay’s proposal, as set forth in Board Bill 83, will get its first hearing Tuesday in the aldermanic Ways and Means Committee. Though it has the support of at least eight of the 28 aldermen and aldermanic President Lewis Reed, it is expected to face significant opposition. ...

In Mr. Slay’s defense, the Republican-dominated Missouri Legislature boxed him in. In May the Legislature passed House Bill 722, forbidding local governments from banning plastic grocery bags. While they were debating this tacky special interest bill (its sponsor was state director of the grocers association), lawmakers decided they’d punish working people, too. They added an amendment saying local governments couldn’t raise minimum wages higher than the state ($7.65) or federal ($7.25) levels. ... Gov. Jay Nixon may yet veto HB 722, and he should. He has until the end of the month to decide. If he doesn’t, the city would have to act before the state law goes into effect Aug. 28. The Republicans, with their veto-proof majorities, could override that veto in September. ...

The big question is how high the minimum wage should be. ... There’s no doubt that minimum wages should be higher. In terms of buying power, the value of the minimum wage reached its peak in 1968 ...

Mr. Slay’s proposal would immediately boost the minimum wage to $10, followed by annual increments of $1.25 until $15 was reached by 2020. Thus someone earning $8 an hour would see an immediate 25 percent pay raise.

This might well reduce the number of families living in poverty and the number of those low-wage workers who are eligible for food stamps. As Chris Sommers and Frank Uible, owners of Pi Pizza and Gringo, discovered when they were studying the idea of raising their minimum wage to $10.10, it reduces training and turnover costs.

They made the decision to go ahead. Had they been faced with four more $1.25 bumps, the analysis might have been different.

Social justice was a strong consideration in their decision to go ahead. But it was bolstered by hard-core analysis of individual business factors. Mr. Slay’s proposal is long on social justice but short on hard-core economic analysis. It needs both.

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