Kansas City might increase the minimum wage to $15

The $15 hourly minimum wage battle approaches the Midwest, as Kansas City, Missouri might have a ballot proposal on the issue in November.

According to The Huffington Post, the city council will consider an ordinance that would allow the question on the ballot, increasing the hourly minimum wage $1.25 every year until it reaches $15 in 2020.

The city council approved an increase to $13 hourly in July, but the city might see a referendum on it.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed a July bill that would have prevented cities from raising their municipal minimum wages above the state minimum wage, but the Republican legislature could override Nixon’s veto. If the override succeed, the proposals in Kansas City will be null.

Agitation for minimum wage increases have seen some success in Maine along with cities such as Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Washington D.C. that have made headlines.

The median hourly wage in Kansas City is $17.55. The ratio of the median wage and the minimum wage matters because, as Noam Scheiber in The New York Times analyzes, the higher the ratio, the higher the risk for job losses resulting from a high minimum wage.

Assuming, as Scheiber does, 2 percent annual growth in wages during 2014-2020, Kansas City’s $15 hourly minimum wage is close to 70 percent of the median hourly wage (after correcting for full-time median hourly wages). Scheiber says that “economists have very few historical examples of increases that go beyond 60 percent,” and market adjustments to the new normal could have unintended consequences, or stronger negative effects.

Local and state experiments with the minimum wage is useful for establishing more robust data on the effect of minimum wage hikes. The issue, however, is that the experiments could risk job growth and stronger employment.

The movement for a $15 hourly minimum wage across America, rather than bolstering the working class, could unintentionally harm a large swath of workers active in the political push.