Iowa minimum wage increase clears first legislative hurdle

DES MOINES - Dozens of Iowans converged on the Statehouse Tuesday in support of giving Iowa's lowest-paid workers their first wage increase in seven years.

'It's not right and we need to do something about it,” said Sue Dinsdale, leader of Iowa Citizens Action Network, shortly after a Senate subcommittee approved a bill on a 3-0 bipartisan vote that would boost the state's minimum wage to $8.75 an hour by July 1, 2016. The bill would provide a 75-cent hourly increase to the current $7.25 minimum on July 1 and a second 75-cent jump one year later.

'No state has been stuck at $7.25 an hour longer than Iowa,” said Sen. Tony Bisignano, D-Des Moines, chairman of the Senate Labor and Business Relations Committee, who indicated he would bring the minimum wage and a separate wage theft measure before the full committee on Wednesday.

Also Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said he expected to bring the bill before the full Senate for a vote this session.

If approved by both legislative chambers and signed by Gov. Terry Branstad, Bisignano said the compromise legislation, once fully implemented, would raise the yearly income of a full-time worker making the hourly minimum by $3,120 a year and $6,240 for working couples struggling to make ends meet.

Sen. Rick Bertrand, R-Sioux City, said a minimum-wage boost in Iowa is 'long overdue” and is especially needed to avoid what he called a 'labor war” with bordering states like South Dakota, where the minimum hourly wage is being increased to $8.50, while Nebraska is moving to $9.

'I think it's the right number for the right time,” said Bertrand, who told reporters after the meeting that he believed the vote by the full Senate would 'surprise everybody” by the number of minority GOP senators who would support Senate Study Bill 1151 and put pressure on majority House Republicans to consider forwarding the measure to the governor's desk.

Last week, House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said legislative Republicans are focused on ways to spur Iowa's economy in a more comprehensive way that will create more opportunities for Iowans to get the training needed to land high-paying careers, and businesses have the climate to make investments that lead to job growth.

If the Senate passes a minimum-wage increase and sends it to the House, majority House Republicans 'will give it every due consideration, but I can say that's where we're focused right now. We're focused on higher paying jobs,” Paulsen said.

Senate GOP Leader Bill Dix of Shell Rock said his 24-member caucus would be willing to debate the merits of a minimum-wage increase, but he called it 'an old idea” that's been around for a long time when Senate Republicans would prefer to focus on fostering an environment where high-paying careers can be developed.

'I don't think there's anything wrong with having this debate, but if that's where it stops, then we've fallen short,” Dix said.

While many Democrats, labor organizations, senior groups, citizen advocates and others supported raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour over a three-year phase in, Bisignano said Tuesday that $8.75 an hour represents a compromise that would be required to win House passage and the signature of Iowa's six-term Republican governor.

Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo, said going to $8.75 an hour was a reasonable step and not as large a jump as previously passed when Iowa went to $7.25 in 2007 - an increase that business groups at the time predicted would trigger layoffs and shut young people out of work but outcomes that Dotzler said 'never came to fruition.”

Jan Laue of the Iowa Alliance of Retired Americans said Iowa has a sizable population of citizens over the age of 65 who are required to work minimum-wage jobs because their Social Security or fixed retirement incomes aren't providing them the economic security they need. Many of those seniors are 'living on the edge” and would welcome the raise being pushed by the Senate's majority Democrats.