Missouri Voters: The Ball is in Your Court

Jim Talent knows a good deal when he sees one -- that's why he doesn't hesitate to take massive pay raises, while hundred of thousands of his constituents work for minimum wage.  And Senator Talent continues to oppose raising the minimum wage for working families, while his salary has gone up by over $30,000. From http://www.missouriprovote.come:

The Missouri Citizen Education Fund released the following press release detailing an important state proposition that would raise the minimum wage in Missouri from $5.15 to $6.50. Check it out below:

New MCEF Report Compares Congressional and State Legislative Pay
Increases to Increases in Minimum Wage Pay

(Jefferson City, MO):  State Representative John Bowman and State
Representative Paul LeVota joined Ron Berry of Missouri Citizen
Education Fund (MCEF) today at the Capitol to release a new report
that shows how elected officials from the US President to Missouri
State Legislators have received increases in pay to accommodate higher
cost of living over the past nine years while minimum wage earners
have received none.  The report, titled Lawmakers Getting Ahead While
Leaving Missouri Minimum Wage Workers Behind, also shows how
Congressional pay has increased by $31,600 through automatic
adjustments from 1997-2006.  This amount is almost three times what a
full time minimum wage workers earns in a year.

Reps. Bowman and LeVota co-sponsored a bill to increase Missouri's
minimum wage during the 2006 Legislative Session in order to increase
the hourly wage from $5.15 to $6.50 and to index it to keep up with
inflation in the future.  "Minimum wage has lost its purchasing power
since the last time it was increased in 1997.  Food, gas,
rent-everything has gotten much more expensive and a minimum wage
paycheck won't stretch far enough anymore to pay for basic
necessities.  Congress gets regular raises, the Governor receives
increases, state legislators receive increases-it only makes sense
that minimum wage earners should receive an increase as well," said
Representative Bowman.

"Elected officials work hard for their salaries, but so do minimum
wage earners.  This is an issue of common sense fairness. President
Bush's salary has doubled from $200,000 to $400,000 since he took
office in 2001.  It's been almost twice as long since minimum wage
workers have had any increase at all," said Ron Berry, spokesman for
MCEF.  The last time Congress increased minimum wage was 1997.  This
is the second largest stretch of years that minimum wage has gone
without any adjustment for inflation since 1938 when it was
established.

Proposition B, on the November 7th ballot, offers Missouri voters the
chance to vote directly on raising minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.50
starting in January 2007.   Proposition B would also index the state
minimum wage to CPI, allowing for annual adjustments to accommodate
impact 256,000 minimum wage earners in Missouri.  Typically, families
with minimum wage earners depend on those earners for over half of the
family's total earnings.  Almost half of families with an affected
worker depend solely on the wages of the minimum wage earner.

Posted by Americans United For Change Web Team