Support a reasonable wage proposal

Democrats in the Iowa Senate have come up with a reasonable proposal to raise the state's minimum wage. We'd like to see Republicans get on board and push it to passage with a bipartisan majority, just as lawmakers did in 2007.

Democrats want to raise the current $7.25 per hour minimum to $8.75, with 75-cent increases on July 1, 2015, and July 1, 2016. That's considerably lower than the $10.10 minimum championed by Democrats during the last campaign.

We understand the misgivings of small business owners and others who don't like to see the cost of doing business rise. But by July 2016, it will have been eight-and-a-half years since the last increase. The proposed $1.50 increase amounts to about 2.4 percent per year during that stretch. Although we agree that $10.10 would have been a tough pill to swallow for business, we see $8.75 as far more reasonable.

We're also under no impression that this solves the economic growth and workforce challenges Iowa faces. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about 5.4 percent, about 50,000, of Iowa's 921,000 hourly wage-earners make at or below the minimum. About 24 percent of minimum wage earners are teenagers, more than half work in leisure or hospitality businesses and 57 percent work fewer than 35 hours per week.

But a $1.50 raise isn't insignificant. It's an extra $52.50 in gross earnings each week for an employee working 35 hours. That extra money can make a difference to a single mother working multiple jobs or a college student helping pay his way through school, or a younger student saving for higher education. And beyond those 50,000 who earn at or below the current minimum, the increase would mean a raise for other workers above $7.25 but below $8.75.

Among Iowa's neighbors, only Wisconsin still pays the federal minimum of $7.25 along with Iowa. Minnesota's minimum wage is now $9, with $8.50 in South Dakota and $8.25 in Illinois.

No one at the Statehouse is talking about eliminating the minimum wage. So if we're going to continue setting a wage floor, we're also going to have to raise it periodically. And if lawmakers are unwilling to take the smart step of indexing our minimum wage to allow for small, annual cost of living raises, lawmakers must occasionally step up to support an increase like the one being proposed.

After seven years, that time is now.

' Comments: (319) 398-8469; editorial@thegazette.com