Should we raise minimum wage?

Iowa house Speaker Craig Paulson was recently quoted as saying House Republicans are interested in creating an environment where employers can hire people at wages sufficient to support a family. Raising the minimum wage wouldn't achieve that, he said, but rather it would hurt some low-wage workers who would lose their employment.

I do not believe any of that. It is the old 'this hurts me more than it hurts you; I am only looking out for your best interest” baloney.

I wanted to see who Rep. Paulson felt he was helping by refusing to allow a vote in the Iowa House on the minimum wage bill so I did a bit of research. All of the statistics to follow in this piece are numbers the nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project came up with based on the U.S. Department of Labor and National Conference of State Legislatures and the Economic Policy Institute.

When Iowa's wage rose to $7.25 in late July 2009, only Illinois among our neighbors was higher. No other state minimum wage has held at $7.25 longer than Iowa's. Five of the six states bordering Iowa have approved higher minimums.

About 181,000 Iowans would benefit from a wage increase to at least $8.75. The demographics may surprise you. Seventy-two percent are age 20 or over, 44 percent work full time, 59 percent are women and 20 percent have children. On average, they earn 44 percent of their family's total income. Contrary to belief, Iowa's low wage workers are not mostly high school kids making spending money. They are hardworking people trying to survive.

I also found that most of the low-wage workers in Iowa are in the food or service industry. This is important to know because if Rep. Paulson's statements are true and workers would lose their jobs if paid $8.75 that would mean that corporate giants like McDonalds, Burger King and other massive big-box retailers do not make enough in profits to pay their employees even a meager $8.75.

We know that these companies' profits are massive - even through the recession they were astronomical - so I disagree. Historically, when the minimum wage is raised, the economy grows stronger. Low-income workers spend new earnings on necessities, thus more money goes back to business in the community.

Sixty-five percent of Iowans want to see a raise in minimum wage from its current $7.25 an hour per a 2014 Des Moines register poll.

Elected officials please do what we elected you to do: Raise and protect Iowa wages.

' Rick Moyle is executive director of Hawkeye Labor Council AFL-CIO, Cedar Rapids. Comments: rmoyle@hawkeyelabor.us