JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. –State Rep. Michael Butler pre-filed legislation this month that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. Butler said the state’s current minimum wage of $7.65 an hour has trapped too many Missourians in poverty.
“No one in Missouri should work a full-time job and still be living in poverty. Our core objective as leaders of this state is to improve the quality of life for the citizens of Missouri. I can think of no better way to do that than to increase the minimum wage,” said Butler, D-St. Louis.
He added, “Thousands of Missourians are suffering from, not a lack of work, but from a lack of livable wages. We can do something to help that, and we will.”
Butler noted that the City of St. Louis passed approved a plan to raise the minimum wage to $11 an hour by 2018. However, the legislature overrode the governor’s veto of a bill that prohibits communities from setting minimum wages. Butler said “Missouri has some of the most productive workers in the country, and if the minimum wage had kept up with worker productivity, it would be over $21 an hour. It is time to end the confusion on this issue by raising the state’s minimum wage to a living wage for all Missourians.”
Butler’s legislation is HB 1453. Bill pre-filing began in the Missouri House Tuesday, Dec. 1. The 2016 legislative session begins Wednesday, Jan. 6.
