Missouri Republicans Lower St. Louis Minimum Wage From $10 To $7.70

[babylonsister]

POLITICS 07/03/2017 01:52 pm ET
Missouri Republicans Lower St. Louis Minimum Wage From $10 To $7.70
Take that, local decision-making.
By Dave Jamieson


If you thought the minimum wage only moved in one direction, then Missouri Republicans have a surprise for you.

After St. Louis leaders raised the wage floor for workers within city limits, the state GOP recently passed what’s known as a statewide “preemption” law, forbidding localities from taking such matters into their own hands. On Friday, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R) said he would let the law go into effect, thereby barring cities and counties from setting a minimum wage higher than the state level.

For low-wage earners in St. Louis itself, the new law will have a startling consequence: It will actually push the minimum wage back down, from the city-approved $10 per hour to the state-approved $7.70. The downgrade is slated to take effect on Aug. 28.

For someone earning the bare minimum, that’s a potential cut of 23 percent.

HuffPost readers: Are you, or is someone you know, a St. Louis worker affected by this law? Email us about it.

It’s impossible to say how many St. Louis employers will take the GOP up on the offer to slash pay, given the effect such a move could have on competitiveness and morale. But if businesses agree with Republicans that the city wage hike is too aggressive, then at least some of them are likely to revert to the lower pay rates, particularly in low-wage industries like fast food.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/st-louis-minimum-wage_us_595a69bae4b0da2c7324d725

[brush]

1. How fu_king heartless can repugs get? They always find a new low to go to.

[GoCubsGo]

2. Sickening.

I hope the Democrats will turn this into massive state-wide voter registration project. If this doesn't get people off of their asses, I don't know what will.

[oasis]

3. People of Mizzou, who is looking out for you?

[loyalsister]

10. No one

The university system got hit hard, too.

[Thrill]

14. Keep on voting for those Republicans

.

[Solly Mack]

4. From $400.00 a week to $308.00 a week, if you work 40 hours.

That's $92.00. That's groceries. That's lights or gas - or any combination of bills.

That $92.00 could be the difference between having somewhere to live and being evicted.

It might not seem like a lot to many people but it can make all the difference to someone who needs every penny just to survive.

And that's before taxes.

[babylonsister]

6. Exactly. So heartless. nt

[Solly Mack]

18. Republicans don't like it being said they want to harm people, yet their actions

harm people.

The connection either escapes them or they would prefer people didn't tell the truth about them.

[ProudLib72]

5. I wondered why I was seeing so many Misery license plates around here

Misery, the Show Me the Way Out state.

[lpbk2713]

7. Making it even more difficult for Missourians to afford health care.

[Chasstev365]

8. And still many of these wage earners will vote for the GOP in 2018

[n2doc]

15. Likelihood is they won't vote at all

Either too busy trying to survive to vote, can't get time off, or having one of the GOP's various voter discouragement tactics work.

[Chasstev365]

16. Good points!

[msongs]

9. so what MO residents do about this? nt

[loyalsister]

11. No surprise

Most people saw it coming. The gov used to be a Democrat and seems to be working extra hard to prove he can be as mean as they want.
If that weren't weird enough, his opponent served in the General Assembly as a republican untill 2007, and was elected AG in 2008 as a Democrat.
It takes a lot to surprise us.

The only way to change it would be to repeal the legislation, or raise the minimum wage statewide. The GA isn't going to do that anytime soon, so the only possibility for the foreseeable future would be a ballot referendum.

[gtar100]

12. It cannot be said enough...

Anyone willing to pay you minimum wage is willing to pay you less.

[Nevernose]

13. Those mooching lazy (insert minority) fuckers should get jobs!

And if their jobs don't pay well, then it's probably their own goddamned fault for being (insert minority of choice here). "Those" people are always looking for a hand out.

Clearly that was sarcasm, but I believe arguments against minimum wage are all rooted in racism, and demonstrated well the intersection of unregulated capitalism and racism. Racism among the 99% isn't a design flaw, it's a feature.

[Calculating]

17. Republicans actually just hate the poor

I've said it time and time again. They basically see the poor as the 'takers' of society and think that poor people are usually poor due to their own poor choices in life. "They just need to get right with God, and work two jobs while getting an advanced degree and everything will work out for them in the end!"

[JI7]

19. Most of the state voted for this. I feel bad for those that didn't

But the fact is this is what most of them voted for.

[ellie]

20. And yet

they keep getting elected, over and over and over again.

[moondust]

21. Iowa GOP did basically the same.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=9278643

How long before the assholes do away with the minimum wage altogether?

[RandomAccess]

22. They seem to be in a contest for who can exhibit the most cruelty

You'd think the money came out of their own pockets or something.

[Volaris]

23. Well good on them I suppose for utterly destroying their own partys argument

For the many many benefits of local control being OH SO MUCH more important than Centralized Power.

These people are so fucking dumb they don't even understand their own arguments. If they really believed their own bullshit (or at least wanted us to believe that they believe it) they would have praised the LOCAL wage hike as an example of Conservative Philosophy, ACTUALIZED.

There's no way this stands in court, and any Democratic party member or elected official who can't figure out how to hit republicans over the head with this is ALSO a fucking idiot. This one writes itself.