The Employment Policies Institute released a finding in August 24th, 2006 that a minimum wage hike would put low-skilled Missourians out of work.

The study by Dr. David Macpherson of Florida State University would deliver a 44.4 million hit to Missouri businesses and a job loss translation of $15 million in lost income.

Being a small business owner I can attest to this. Granted, I would not pay my employees minimum wage, but it pushes the initial hiring envelope higher to where it takes more for me to higher someone. That leads to less efficiency and lost business.

Then again, this whole minimum wage increase thing is not a “moral” issue like many Democrats would want you to believe. It is simply a big wet kiss to unions while trying to get people in the lower income brackets to vote since they generally trend Democrat.

I believe the worst part of the proposed ammendment is that there is a locked in increase. I admit I do not know if the increase continues for ever or just over a few years. This is vital to understanding the bill. If it is not tied to a certain cap then what if we face a recession or depression? What will be the base cost for starting a business or hiring someone?

It is obvious that those who wrote the proposed bill do not understand how a business is run and do not respect us small business owners who work very hard to get where we are, only to be told by the government that we must pay our employees a certain rate instead of allowing the market to determine that number.

In the end I am afraid that the trend of people starting businesses of their own will be snuffed out by government regulation. There is so much that we can do to help folks without forcing our days to be “government approved.”

Posted by Paul Seale on Monday, September 25th, 2006 at 3:30 pm. Filed under Missouri Politics.