On the latest episode of Politically Speaking, author Heather McGhee talks about her support for a ballot item raising Missouri’s minimum wage.
McGhee is a New York-based attorney who wrote the New York Times bestselling book "The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together." Part of her work involved following the movement in Missouri to raise the minimum wage, particularly in the Kansas City area.
“I wanted to come back and see what was going on, and I'm really thrilled to see the amount of broad-based support for something that should be common sense, which is that people should not work all day and come home in poverty,” McGhee said. "And they should be able to earn sick time to take care of themselves and their loved ones.”
Proposition A on the Nov. 5 ballot would raise the state’s minimum wage to $13.75 an hour next year – and gradually move it up to $15 an hour by 2026. Once it reaches $15, the minimum wage will continue to go up based on changes in the Consumer Price Index starting in 2027. Currently, Missouri’s minimum wage is $12.30 an hour.
The initiative would also require employers to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.
“We understand nowadays that people get sick. Their loved ones get sick. Your child has to stay home,” McGhee said. “And if they don't have the ability to do that without missing a whole day's pay or risking their job, there are cascading impacts in that family and for the customers who walk in and somebody's coughing over them.”
When McGhee was taping her episode of Politically Speaking, there hadn’t been any announced opposition to Proposition A. But that changed recently when the Missouri Chamber of Commerce came out against the initiative. A representative from that group will appear on Politically Speaking in the coming weeks to provide its perspective on the measure.
Still, the odds of Proposition A passing seem fairly solid based on past precedent. Missourians approved wage increases in 2006 and 2018 without much trouble. And even though Proposition A is a statutory change that the legislature could hypothetically undo, the GOP-controlled General Assembly declined to alter either initiative.
“The grassroots support all across the state for this initiative is so strong that this becomes a defining issue in voters' minds,” McGhee said. “And if the legislature were to step out and first, reverse the will of the people, and second, push one in four Missouri workers back deeper into poverty, I think they should be very, very worried about making such a move.”
