Taking Care Of The Least Among Us Is The Least Our Legislature Can Do
by John Drury

This week is known as funnel week in the Iowa legislature, the week where bills must get passed out of committee to have a chance for passage this session. The funnel deadline only applies to policy bills; tax and spending bills or legislation introduced by leaders of either party aren’t subject to the funnel deadline.

And while the work of this session will certainly focus after this week, it’s perhaps more interesting to look at bills that appear to be dead this session; one of which is Iowa’s minimum wage. I attended a legislative forum over the weekend and was given a fact sheet on this issue. I want to take an opportunity to share some of that information with you.

Iowa’s minimum wage is stuck at $5.15 per hour. The 200,000 Iowa workers that work for minimum wage in this state pull in a whopping $10,712 yearly. This puts them at $5,000 below poverty level for a family of three. Iowa is a low wage state, ranking somewhere around 40th in the country. This is embarrassing, it is wrong and Iowa must do better.

There are four bills that have yet to pass out of committee that will increase Iowa’s minimum wage. Two in the House, HF 105 and HF111; and two in the Senate, SF 120 and SF 94. These bills ought to be headed for debate and yet they are destined for the circular file.

Opponents to raising the minimum wage will tell you that since the federal minimum wage is $5.15, there’s no reason or precedent for Iowa’s to be higher. That is simply not true; 14 states and the District of Columbia each have a higher minimum wage than the federal rate. Many other state legislatures are starting to take action on this issue, and Iowa is not even willing to debate it. Not only is Iowa not a leader on this issue, we aren’t even a very good follower.

Opponents also say that it will hurt Iowa’s economy to raise the minimum wage higher than the federal rate. Again, not true; between 1990-1996, most of the time Iowa’s rate was higher than the federal and not only did it not hurt us, it helped us. Our state output grew and unemployment actually dropped.

And when those arguments fail, they say that it will hurt small businesses by “driving up their costs.” While wage costs will go up, studies have shown that businesses recoup some of that cost by higher productivity, increased worker morale, lower absenteeism and lower recruiting costs.

Iowa’s minimum wage is beyond shameful. I encourage you to contact your legislators and get them to pass a bill out of committee on this. Tell them to take their pick, as any of the four bills I mentioned will raise the minimum wage and do it responsibly. At the very least, we need a debate. Iowa should not be competing against China and Mexico for who will work for the lowest wage.