Sen. Norma Champion and Democratic challenger Doug Harpool disagree on a Missouri ballot initiative designed to boost the state's minimum wage.
MINIMUM WAGE
Champion "NO"
Harpool "YES"
Harpool said he will vote to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.50 an hour because "it hasn't been raised in so long." "As CEO salaries have gone up, prices have gone up, it's appropriate to try to adjust it, to maintain a consistent and current wage," Harpool said.
Secondly, Harpool said, the price of health insurance has skyrocketed 61% since the minimum wage was last increased. "The minimum wage worker would have to work 53 weeks to pay the average premium for health insurance in Missouri, which is $11,000 a year. That would leave them no money to pay for clothes, food, utilities, medicine or anything else a family needs," Harpool said.
Sen. Champion said while she would love to see a minimum wage hike on the federal level, she opposes this state ballot initiative. "It would keep the economy better in Missouri if done on a federal level. However it isn't being done and I can understand the feeling of doing it on a state level. It may be time to raise the minimum wage," she said.
Champion said a big problem with this initiative is the inflation clause that ties it to the consumer price index. "Can you imagine every year moving the minimum wage around? It's going to affect all the other wages too," she said.
"It rises with inflation," Harpool said. "Because it's written the way it is, I think the legislature maintains the power to amend it later, should it prove that the indexing formula is inappropriate," he added.
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