The St. Louis minimum was set to increase to $11 per hour in January. (Photo by Erik Mcgregor /Pacific Press /LightRocket via Getty Images)
As workers in cities across the U.S. fight to raise the minimum wage, Republican officials in St. Louis, Mo., just passed a bill that would do the opposite — drive it back down.
City workers were slated to enjoy a slight increase in pay come January, but that dream went kaput after the state GOP passed what’s known as a preemptive law barring cities from doing as they please. The Huffington Post reported that Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R) let the law go into effect Friday, June 30, thus keeping local cities and counties from setting a minimum wage higher than the state level.
As a result, the minimum wage will be forced back down, falling from the city-approved $10 per hour to the new state-approved $7.70 per hour. The switch is set to take affect Aug. 28.
Wanda Roberts, a minimum-wage worker in St. Louis, told CBS News that the new $10 wage earned her an extra $400 a month and benefited the local economy. Now that it’s being reversed, however, Roberts said she’ll have to “go back to struggling.”
“Trying to worry about how I’m going to pay my rent, how I’m going to pay my bills and how I’m going to have money left over to buy household supplies and food,” she said.
The city’s minimum wage was slated to increase to $11 per hour in January, CBS reported, but now that won’t happen. An estimated 38,000 low-wage workers could now lose out on a raise.
Though Greitens wasn’t eager to back the state-approved pay cut and refused to sign the bill, the Huffington Post pointed out that it’s not required for him to sign the bill for it to become law. The Missouri Constitution essentially allows a bill passed by state lawmakers to automatically go into effect so long as the governor doesn’t veto it.
The Fight for $15 campaign, which has fought for wage boosts in St. Louis and other cities across the U.S., criticized Greitens’ lackadaisical approval of the law, calling it “disgusting.”
Same day Minneapolis passes $15, Missouri Gov. @EricGreitens announces he'll lower the wage in St. Louis https://t.co/xqu3uiLqFc #FightFor15 pic.twitter.com/mgMD9M9tFW
— Fight for a Union (@FightForAUnion) July 1, 2017
In the governor’s eyes, however, the St. Louis minimum wage would ultimately “kill jobs.”
“And despite what you hear from liberals, it will take money out of people’s pockets,” Greitens was quoted as saying by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Now, both workers and employers are facing difficult changes. It’s unclear if local businesses will back the GOP’s pay-cut and seek to reduce pay to employees who’ve already received a pay increase.
