The Struggle Against Payday Loans and Low Wages Continue for Missouri

The State Secretary has recently declared that the groups that are filing against payday loans do not have the sufficient number of signatures to have a ballot to settle the issue over their complaint. The campaign for the balloting of the minimum wage hike and the capping on payday loan rates say that they will be challenging the decision of the Secretary of State saying that they had enough signatures to bring the issue to a vote on the Nov. 6 election.

Seam Nicholson of the Progress Missouri reports that the campaigns for the capping of the payday loan rates, the raising in wages and the Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU) are currently challenging the first signature counts from St. Louis City. According to him, they are confident that the signatures that they have garnered 31,582 signatures for the minimum wage petition and 28,220 signatures for the payday lending petition were enough to bring out a balloting process on November.

Currently, the signatures are being validated and examined by the agencies through the records of local agencies to make sure that each of them belongs to registered voters. Voters who allegedly signed the petition in order to voice out their stand on the issue regarding payday loaning.

36 percent of the interest rates for payday loans will be capped by the measures if ever the issue is resolved. In 2009 the Missouri Division of Finance had a study that showed that the average payday loan in the state had an interest rate of 431 percent. The State has also been declared as one of the worst states in the country that engage in the short-term loans.

The minimum proposal for the wages in the state is as low as $7.25 in an hourly rate. They want to change this and make it $8.25 an hour next year.