Sigh. One whole week after signatures are turned in to the MO Secretary of State's office to qualify a ballot initiative to raise Missouri's minimum wage, and the idealogues are already out pleading: Not now! Don't get me wrong - you should never raise the minimum wage - but definitely not now!
Its gonna be a loooong summer for hundreds of thousands of Missouri workers who could benefit from a minimum wage increase. They will be told repeatedly that forcing their employer to pay them more will be bad for them.
David Nicklaus, of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, doesn't think Missourians know enough about economics to make smart decisions regarding their paychecks. He wrote in his article last week:
If a minimum-wage initiative makes it on the November ballot, Missourians will have to choose between economics and emotion...
Missouri voters have a history of voting with their hearts, not their heads: They overwhelmingly approved a minimum wage increase in 2006.
Take the quarter million Missouri workers who benefited from the 2006 increase and have not seen their wages rise with the price of gas and food over the years. What do they think?
I would guess these workers will not be voting with their emotions, nor economics in mind this November. I would guess they will vote on this issue by listening to what may be the loudest. Their stomachs.
