Missouri Republicans limit proposed state worker raises over opposition to $15 minimum

Missouri Republican lawmakers are paring back some of the state worker raises that Gov. Mike Parson has proposed to address “critical” staff shortages, in part over concerns it would give the state an “unfair advantage” over private business.

A proposed supplemental budget that lawmakers passed out of the House Budget Committee on Monday cuts $7.8 million from the $119 million in pay raises that Parson had requested be ready for his signature Feb. 1.

Parson had asked for roughly 8,800 of the state’s lowest-paid workers be raised to a baseline of $15 an hour, but fellow Republicans have balked at creating a new state workers’ minimum wage. Instead, in the plan advanced Monday some of those workers would be raised to only a $12 an hour.

“I don’t think everybody should go to $15 an hour just because we can,” House Budget Chair Cody Smith, a Carthage Republican, said Monday. “There are state jobs that take a minimal amount of skill and experience.”

There is a 26% rate of worker turnover across Missouri government. In jobs paying less than $30,000 a year, that rate is more than 50%. The state is flush with revenue, having ended its last fiscal year in July with a $1 billion surplus.

The raises to $15 would be reserved for workers in the Departments of Mental Health, Public Safety, Social Services and Corrections that are “entrusted with the direct care and well-being of individuals or those otherwise in the custody of the state.”

It’s not clear how many employees that describes. Some positions that would still get raised to a $15 minimum include workers at state hospitals and veterans’ homes, foster care staff and children’s case workers in the juvenile justice system.

Others that would only see a raise to $12 could include custodial staff or certain call center or desk workers, said Rep. Peter Merideth, a St. Louis Democrat.

Arguing for the raises, state budget director Dan Haug told lawmakers in January that the state is competing with private companies that can afford to boost starting salaries beyond the minimum wage during an ongoing labor shortage.

Missouri’s minimum wage is $11.15 an hour this year.

In Fulton, Haug told the committee a month ago, a prison and mental health facility are competing with a local Dollar General that is starting employees at $17 an hour.

The changes infuriated Democrats, who have backed Parson’s pay plan and accused Smith of going back on his word after supporting the governor’s proposal in December.

Smith said he supported the idea of giving workers a raise in general, but not a $15 state worker minimum wage. He suggested departments use money budgeted for currently vacant positions to temporarily give workers a raise beyond $12, if needed.

The size of the Missouri state workforce has shrunk by about one-sixth in the past 15 years.

Under Smith’s plan, all 51,000 state employees would still receive an across-the-board 5.5% raise.

“The intention here is not to give the lower rungs lesser increases as much as it is to not pay more than minimum-wage wages” for jobs that require “no skills or experience,” Smith said.

Smith, a business owner, raised concerns that it would give the state an “unfair advantage” over private employers who are also struggling with staff shortages.

“Is it an unfair advantage or are we just paying them what’s competitive in the market as the governor and everyone else has suggested?” Merideth said.

Rep. Scott Cupps, a Shell Knob Republican, accused Parson’s administration of not tailoring the proposed raises enough to specific positions and said a blanket $15 minimum would be too high for some positions and useless to recruit against the private market for others.

He told state workers who can make substantially more in the private sector even beyond $15 they should quit.

“When you come to us and say, ‘$15 an hour for everybody that’s under $15 an hour,’ there’s nothing real about that,” he said. “That is a fake number.”