Raise the state’s minimum wage

If S.C. lawmakers wanted to enact legislation that would follow the will of the people, a recent poll offers a surefire choice: Raise the state’s minimum wage.

South Carolina is one of 19 states where the lowest earners make the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour – or less if they also make tips. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have higher minimum wages.

Should South Carolina’s lowest-paid hourly workers be earning more? According to the latest Winthrop Poll, 68 percent of state residents think they should.

That’s more than two-thirds of respondents who think the state should raise the minimum wage above the federally set $7.25 an hour, which likely means that support crosses political and socioeconomic lines. With that in mind, it’s surprising that elected officials don’t jump at the chance to get aboard the bandwagon.

State Rep. Gilda Cobb Hunter, D-Orangeburg, has co-sponsored a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. State Sen. John Scott, D-Richland, has introduced a bill that would ask S.C. voters if the want to raise the minimum wage to a dollar more than the federal rate and index the new wage to inflation.

But opposition to raising the minimum wage is well entrenched in the Legislature’s Republican majority. State Rep. Bill Sandifer, R-Oconee, chairman of a House committee that would consider any proposal to increase the minimum wage, said soon after the poll results were announced that he is not in favor of an increase.

Of South Carolina’s 1.1 million hourly workers in 2013, about 5.8 percent were paid the minimum wage. That is a higher percentage than the national average of 4.3 percent of hourly workers.

Raising the minimum wage in South Carolina could increase the pay for about 65,000 workers. And other workers could benefit as well if their wages increase to reflect the new higher minimum wage.

Those who oppose an increase, however, often cite the burden it would place on mom-and-pop business owners. They would have to pay higher wages or hire fewer workers, and some workers undoubtedly would be laid off.

While no one denies that raising the minimum wage would come with a cost to employers, that is not the only relevant consideration. An increase in the minimum wage also would raise the living standards of thousands of South Carolina workers and, ultimately, benefit the state’s economy as a whole.

Paying workers a living wage would allow them to save and spend more, creating more economic activity statewide. It also likely would decrease employee turnover, which would reduce the cost of training new employees.

One ugly fact about low minimum wages is that many who work for $7.25 an hour must rely on Medicaid, food stamps and other social services to get by, especially is they have children to support. That means that all taxpayers essentially are subsidizing cheap labor for employers who don’t want to pay a living wage.

Paying a decent wage also has the tendency to make workers more productive and cut down on absenteeism. In the end, it can actually reduce labor costs.

The 68 percent of South Carolinians who favor increasing the minimum wage apparently think it would be generally beneficial. Perhaps they also believe that paying people enough to live on is simply the right thing to do.

This may be one situation in which elected officials should pay closer attention to the polls.

This story was originally published March 15, 2015 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Raise the state’s minimum wage."