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Missouri state employees are now the lowest paid in the country.

New surveys indicate the pay of Missouri government workers is the lowest in among all state workers in the nation.

Lawmakers are setting up a special panel to find out why.

"Well, sometimes, when you look at how the pay plans and structure of compensation are addressed in other states, you can learn something,” said Sen. Mike Kehoe (R) Jefferson City. “So, I think the intent of this committee is to learn what other states are doing.”

Kehoe thinks his legislative colleagues are embarrassed that Missouri ranks fifty out of fifty.

But Representative Mike Bernskoetter, who sponsored the resolution to set up the investigation, is not so sure.

"I even had one lady in committee that said, 'Well, if we found out they are not 50th, are they willing to do with less?'"

Both Bernskoetter and Kehoe expect to be appointed to the study group.