By Jeanne Kuang and Jonathan Shorman
The Kansas City Star
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri House on Thursday passed a bill that curbs the pay raises Gov. Mike Parson wanted to give state workers, reserving a requested $15-an-hour minimum wage only to staff in four departments with “direct care” roles.
About 8,800 state employees make less than $15 an hour, state budget director Dan Haug told lawmakers last month. It’s not clear exactly how many of those are the prison officers, juvenile justice system case workers, state hospital staff and veteran’s home employees who would qualify for the full raise.
Under the plan the House passed, hundreds of custodial staff, food service workers, court clerks and other administrative employees would only get raised to $12, or get a 5.5% bump that all state workers would receive regardless of salary.
The vote was 114-11, with 25 Democrats abstaining over the reductions. The bill now goes to the Senate.
Republican lawmakers said Parson’s administration could offer raises on its own with money budgeted for positions that sit vacant as the state struggles to hire. But House Budget Chair Cody Smith, a Carthage Republican, has not said how departments should handle wages if they are able to fill the positions in the future.
Turnover across state government is 26%; the rate is greater than 50% for those making less than $30,000 a year. Missouri frequently ranks at the bottom of the nation for state worker pay.
Democrats were furious with the reductions and accused GOP lawmakers of being talked out of what was initially a popular plan.
“It shouldn’t take that much political courage to stand with your governor, to stand with the workers of the state,” Rep. Peter Merideth, a St. Louis Democrat, said on Thursday.
During floor debate on Wednesday they cited figures showing the lowest-paid state workers are below the poverty line if they have children. They also brought up testimony from Republican Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe this week describing state workers at the grocery store using food stamps.
“We have state employees watching today who are feeling the brunt of our hostility toward them, who have had raises promised and then taken away,” said Rep. Sarah Unsicker, a Shrewsbury Democrat.
Smith, who is a business owner, said he didn’t want the state to compete with private businesses for what he called low-skill, “truly minimum wage jobs.”
“A minimum wage job is not intended to provide for a family with children,” Smith said.
Missouri’s minimum wage is $11.15 an hour this year. Haug has said the state is competing for workers with private businesses that are starting employees at $17 amid a labor shortage.
Rep. Hannah Kelly, a Mountain Grove Republican, said the lawmakers’ plan was “not just about the workers,” but about fiscal responsibility.
“The state worker who called me yesterday worried about foster kids having beds to sleep in does her job with a passion that is bigger than the size of this building,” she said. “She does deserve all the help that we can give her but she also deserves for us to run good government.”
‘Good news’
On Wednesday Democrats tried unsuccessfully to restore Parson’s proposed raises. Six Republicans joined them in support.
One of them was Rep. Rudy Veit of Wardsville, whose district borders thousands of government employees’ homes in Jefferson City and wrote colleagues in December urging them to support Parson’s plan.
“I would have preferred the governor’s proposal but I understand the challenges of our political environment here,” he said Wednesday. “We do need to get something through.”
Parson made his request for the pay plan in December with statements of support from GOP House and Senate budget leaders, describing the shortage of state workers as “critical” and urging lawmakers to pass the raises by Feb. 1. The state currently enjoys record revenues.
The bill also includes millions of dollars to fully fund the state’s Medicaid program after a court ordered the expansion of eligibility last summer, and close to $2 billion in federal aid for schools that must be allocated by late March.
Republican lawmakers have slow-walked the process, delayed by both COVID cases in the legislature and conservative skepticism over creating a $15 minimum wage for state workers. The pared-back raises will reach the state Senate more than a week after Parson wanted it on his desk.
The governor on Wednesday acknowledged some departments that would keep the $15 baseline under the House plan, such as Corrections and Mental Health, are seeing more critical staff shortages than others.
“A lot of those provisions are in there, so that’s the good news,” Parson told reporters during an unrelated visit to Kansas City. “We’re going to try to work to make sure everybody gets a base salary in the state of Missouri ... I think it’s really important right now that we maintain that state workforce.”
His spokeswoman Kelli Jones added Thursday his office stands by the need for the full raises.
“There is no team member in state government that is worth less than $15 per hour, and Governor Parson remains hopeful that any supplemental budget bill sent to his desk will include the funds necessary to better pay Missouri’s public servants,” she said in an email.
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