NFIB/Missouri is working with the Restaurant Association to oppose the minimum wage ordinance.
The City Council postponed a city-wide vote to determine whether Kansas City will enact an ordinance raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, but the issue is not dead yet.
The impetus for the ordinance was the passage of HB 722, which passed the Missouri General Assembly and now awaits action from Gov. Jay Nixon. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Dan Shaul, state director of the Missouri Grocers Association, started out as a response to a proposed plastic bag ban by the Columbia City Council, but grew into much more as it moved through the legislature.
Although HB 722 prevents any ban, fee or tax from being imposed upon the use of plastic bags for packaging any item or good purchased, it also contains preemption language—added in the Senate—stating that municipalities cannot have a minimum wage higher than that of the state or federal government.
“[This addition] all of a sudden elevates [Rep. Shaul’s] little bag bill to major controversial status,” says Brad Jones, NFIB’s Missouri state director.
Jones says it’s unclear so far if Gov. Nixon will sign the legislation. If he vetoes it, there must be 109 votes to override it, which Jones thinks is possible, although that wouldn’t happen until September’s veto session. If Gov. Nixon doesn’t take action on it by the second week in July, the bill would go into effect on Aug. 28.
For that reason, Jones believes supporters of minimum wage increases in municipalities like Kansas City and St. Louis are quickly trying to take advantage of this current time window.
“We definitely support the bill,” Jones says. “We think having a separate minimum wage in every little municipality would be an absolute nightmare for businesses.”
Jones adds that a major factor in consideration of a minimum wage increase is the fact that Kansas, a very business-friendly state, is just next door, separated by only a four-lane road.
“It is not our desire to be another Los Angeles or Seattle,” Jones says. “Especially when you’re looking at a state that has seven bordering states. That dictates a lot of what happens in Missouri—we’ve got so many states around us, and you don’t in Seattle or Los Angeles.”
NFIB/Missouri is working with the Restaurant Association to oppose the minimum wage ordinance.
