Proposal to raise SC’s minimum wage killed

A South Carolina Senate subcommittee on Wednesday killed a bill that would have raised the minimum wage in the Palmetto State to $15 an hour by 2020.

Filed by state Sen. Marlon Kimpson, D-Charleston, the bill would have raised the minimum wage from the federally mandated $7.25 a hour by increments until it reached $15. The bill would have then required automatic increases in the future tied to inflation.

The bill was turned back by a 3-2 vote along party lines.

Republicans on the panel feared a higher minimum wage would cause businesses to locate in other states, cause business owners to lower wages of slightly higher paid employees to balance the bottom line, and prevent teenagers from getting summer jobs.

Subcommittee chairman Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, said that wages in South Carolina should be set by business owners, most of whom pay more than the federally mandated minimum in order to retain workers. “I see the free market working without involving government,” he said.

Kimpson responded that the General Assembly had funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives to companies like Boeing and Volvo to locate in South Carolina.

“The free market wasn’t there for that,” he said. “Government was. We haven’t passed one bill to benefit workers in South Carolina ... but we’ve passed a lot of incentives for business.”

Only one speaker — a union representative of the the AFL-CIO — supported the bill. John Brisini argued that a higher minimum wage would save the state money by taking people off public assistance, among other points.

No one other than Republican senators on the panel opposed the bill.

Kimpson said he knew the bill would not pass, “but I respect the hearing.”

South Carolina is one of 19 states where the lowest earners make the federal minimum wage, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have higher minimum wages – the highest being in D.C. at $10.50 an hour. California recently passed a law raising its minimum to $15 an hour by 2022.

Raising the minimum wage could increase the pay of about 65,000 South Carolinians, according to 2013 Labor Department statistics, the last year the numbers were calculated. Those include workers who make $7.25 an hour or as little as $2.13, if they also make tips.

In South Carolina, minimum wage workers make up a larger portion of the hourly paid workforce than nationally. Of South Carolina’s 1.1 million hourly workers in 2013, about 5.8 percent were paid the minimum wage or less, if they also earned tips. Nationally, 4.3 percent of workers paid by the hour were paid the minimum wage.

Also, it is illegal for S.C. cities or counties to raise the minimum wage — lawmakers passed a law in 2002 banning local governments from doing so.

However, a March 2015 Winthrop University poll show most South Carolinians support a wage hike.

That poll question found 68 percent of South Carolinians think state lawmakers should raise the state’s minimum wage above the federally set $7.25 an hour.

Kimson said he plans to reintroduce the bill in the future. “I am undeterred,” he said.

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 6:22 PM with the headline "Proposal to raise SC’s minimum wage killed."