By Rebecca Berg
St. Louis Post Dispatch, Feb 24, 2011

About 32 years ago, Lew Prince started a business with 300 records and $20.

Today, Vintage Vinyl in University City has ballooned into a multimillion-dollar business with 19 full-time and six part-time employees.

Prince attributes the success of his business model to two factors in particular: quality employees and loyal customers. But both would be at risk, he said, if state legislators pushing minimum wage restrictions get their way.

Just four years after Missouri voters approved a measure to raise the state's minimum wage, the Legislature is considering bills that would reverse that fiscal course. In both the House and the Senate, lawmakers are backing bills to limit the minimum wage to the federal level by eliminating a cost-of-living escalator.

At a Senate Small Business Committee hearing Tuesday, Prince took issue with the proposals, saying that restricting the minimum wage would benefit larger businesses and reduce buying power in the state.

"This would be bad for my business, bad for any business, bad for my customers and bad for the state," Prince said. "The least we can do for Missourians is to protect the buying power of the poorest among us."

Prince's arguments are in line with those being made by opponents of a change to the state's minimum wage law: A lower minimum wage will hurt workers and businesses alike, while encouraging people to seek employment in states with higher wages.

But in the Statehouse, the initiative has been singled out by Republican lawmakers and corporate interests as one of the six legislative changes that will attract businesses and stimulate the state's economy — a plan referred to inside the building as "Fix the Six."

What needs to be "fixed" with the minimum wage, proponents of the legislation say, is a public vote that went too far.

Missouri's minimum wage increased from $5.15 to $6.50 after more than 70 percent of voters approved Proposition B on the November 2006 ballot.

The measure also directed that the minimum wage be increased or decreased each year proportional to changes in cost of living, or at least to meet the federal minimum wage.

Since the vote and the initial wage hike for Missouri workers, the minimum wage has risen an additional three times: To $6.65 in 2008, $7.05 in January 2009, and $7.25, or the current federal level, in July 2009.

Missouri is one of 33 states to have a minimum wage equivalent to the federal minimum. If the current legislative effort succeeds, it will remain in that group.

The bill's sponsor on the House side, Rep. Jerry Nolte, R-Gladstone, contended that the proposal would be positive for businesses, and reasonable for workers. If businesses need to pay higher wages to attract workers, he said, the free market will adjust for that.

"There's nothing that says employers can pay the minimum wage and no more," Nolte said in an interview. "The marketplace should dictate wages."

Nolte's bill, if enacted, would immediately alter the state's statute to remove the cost of living escalator. The Senate version would submit the change to a statewide vote.

That isn't such a bad idea, according to the Senate bill's backer, Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau. Though voters were the ones to change the law in the first place, Crowell said he thinks the public has begun to rethink the state's minimum wage in light of the economic recession.

Crowell warned that if the state's minimum wage isn't capped, as his proposal recommends, there is no barrier to prevent out-of-control wage increases in light of inflation.

"I don't think this is a genie in a bottle where you can just rub the lantern and say, 'I want $100 an hour,' and expect that not to affect unemployment," Crowell said in an interview.

"Something's got to give. What's going to give is somebody's going to lose their job."

Still, opponents worry that the legislation would disregard voters' wishes and compromise the livelihood of low-income workers.

On Wednesday, minimum wage workers from St. Louis gathered at the Capitol to drive that point home, urging lawmakers to rethink restricting the minimum wage. The workers specifically targeted the House version of the legislation, which was approved by a committee two weeks ago.

Already, though, the bill is on a fast track through the House. It could be brought to the floor for debate as early as next week.

Copyright 2011 St. Louis Post Dispatch

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