MO Senate panel restores funds for Parson to give state workers a $15 minimum wage

A key Missouri Senate panel on Wednesday restored Gov. Mike Parson’s ability to raise all state workers’ pay to $15 an hour, after the House pared down the proposal over opposition to a state employees’ minimum wage.

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed a bill that added back into this year’s budget $7.8 million that the House removed. The budget bill, which heads to the Senate floor, would now allow Parson to give all the raises he requested for state workers, who are leaving Missouri government at what he calls “critical” rates.

The governor’s plan, which he wanted on his desk two weeks ago, includes a 5.5% boost for all employees and a raise to a baseline of $15 an hour for about 8,800 workers who currently make less than that.

The House last week passed a bill reserving the $15 minimum for workers in four departments with “direct care” roles, such as staff in prisons, veterans homes, state hospitals and the juvenile justice system. Hundreds of custodial staff, food service workers, court clerks and other administrative employees would only get raised to $12, or receive the 5.5% bump.

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%.

Republicans in the House supported the raises, but balked at instituting a minimum wage for state workers, which they decried as “political” and worried would create “unfair” competition with private business.

Senate Appropriations Chair Dan Hegeman, a Cosby Republican, moved to simply remove language Parson proposed that sets the $15 minimum wage.

“We’ll just be silent on that and let the market determine where wages should be for state employees,” Hegeman said. “Dollar-wise, we’d be able to fund what the governor’s recommendation was.”

There was little discussion or opposition to the plan. If it clears the Senate, which has not yet passed any legislation this year, the differences would need to be hashed out between the two chambers.

Parson has remained optimistic he will be able to deliver the promised raises. In a Monday memo to state workers, he said he was “disappointed” by the House’s reductions but “we maintain that this approach continues to be necessary to strengthen our workforce recruitment and retention.”