St. Louis gave minimum-wage workers a raise. On Monday, it was taken away

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Melissa Etehad
AUGUST 28, 2017 6:50 PM

Ontario Pope has long struggled to stretch his McDonald’s paycheck to cover the basics and provide for his four young children.

But even after more than nine years with the fast-food chain, the 31-year-old St. Louis man said he still lived with relatives or in motels, the fear of becoming homeless never far from his thoughts.

Pope was hopeful when the city passed an ordinance in May that raised the minimum wage from the state’s $7.70 to $10. Finally, he thought, he would be able to save enough money to get his own place and buy simple things for his children.

. . .

On Monday, McDonald’s rolled Pope’s wages back to $7.70. He’s one of more than 30,000 workers in St. Louis who could see their wages cut after a state law was adopted prohibiting cities from setting higher minimum wages than the state. The law went into effect Monday.



Read more: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-st-louis-minimum-wage-20170828-story.html

[bettyellen]

1. Maybe this can turn some states blue?

[davekriss]

5. Not Missouri

St. Louis city is already as blue as you can get. The Republicans in the rural communities and small towns are unaffected and won't care (or will think it's a positive, why should 'they' receive more than they do kinda thing). We live in dark times.

[LonePirate]

6. It won't turn MO blue which is overrun with evangelicals, deplorables and greedy rich people.

Spiting the left is more important to them than earning a living wage.

[bitterross]

16. your title seems redundant. :)

/nt

[Gore1FL]

9. I keep hoping such things, but MO is pretty backwards--especially outstate.

The people that are affected by this are in St. Louis City, which is already in the bluest part of the state.

Without getting too deep in the weeds, St. Louis City and St. Louis County have been two separate political entities since 1876. Where there are pockets of right-wing nuttery in St. Louis, these tend to be in the County where the minimum wage was never raised.

About the best we can get here now is Claire McCaskill, and even that took a bit of luck.

[Angry Dragon]

2. he should be able to get a jobin the mines that Trump is opening

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Hope St. Louis will take this to court. State passed law and must have made it retroactive

since city raised the minimum prior to state law.

[dhill926]

4. this is so fucked.....

time to rise up....

[Kali]

7. my god people are fucking evil

[mpcamb]

8. Time to throw those legislators pimping for the 1%ers out of office.

[Gore1FL]

10. I wish we could. But I am not hopeful that my state will be the one to do so.

Check out these two (short) campaign adds by my current governor. Sadly, I think they go a long way to explaining the average MO voter.

Chilling, eh?

[JI7]

14. these things always come off to me like making up for shortcomings, i never got the appeal of it

and it's usually men who find it appealing.

to me he just looks like a fool trying hard to make up for shortcomings in other areas.

[Gore1FL]

17. When concealed carry first came up for a vote (and failed) in MO

They were interviewing a supporter who said something along the lines of, "When city folk hear about concealed carry, they think about gangs, but when we think of concealed carry, we think about shooting turkeys."

Apparently, turkeys are smarter than some of the people in my state.

When it came up for a vote again it failed, but our elected leaders decided to go ahead and put fear in the hearts of turkeys despite the will of the voters.

[BigmanPigman]

11. No wonder so many people move away from areas

that treat hard working citizens like shit. Meanwhile the immoral and corrupt become richer by ripping off the 99%. Our country is so different than it was only 50 years ago. I blame Reagan for a lot of it. Since 1980 labor unions have all but disappeared, equating the rich with morality and the poor with lawlessness became the norm, and the "trickle down economics" has killed the middle class.

[beachjustice]

12. Their children will be further mired in a cycle of generational poverty.

They will be robbed of equal opportunity to develop themselves to their potential for our society.

The federal poverty level is significantly lower than it should be. Too many families of 4 can't afford a minimum dignified standard of living on it and have to rely on social safety net to meet basic needs for food, shelter, medical attention. This is a problem since republicans are attacking that safety-net too.

As automation continues to improve and replace human labor, businesses will be lobbying for further reductions and republicans will be questioning whether a minimum of $4.50/hr with no safety-net is too good for the working class.

[SeattleVet]

13. Hold the companies to the fire, too...

just because a city can't raise the minimum wage, doesn't mean that any given company has to pay the absolute minimum; they are free to pay anything from there, up.

If the company was already paying at the higher rate, they should be held accountable if they cut it back. The McDonald's probably isn't company-owned, and it is up to the local franchisee how to set wages. If he raised wages and then cut them he needs to have people stay the fuck away from his restaurants.

[Scarsdale]

18. Taxpayers pay

for their advertising overseas, too. THAT needs to come to a screeching halt.

[JI7]

15. St. Lois will be forced to be miserable like much of the rest of the state

[FairWinds]

19. Taxpayers also pay for MeNasty's employees

social benefits such as food stamps, housing & heat vouchers, etc.

Welfare for the rich.

[vkkv]

20. Stupid fuckers ! Get OUT THERE and VOTE !!!!!!

(FOR YOUR OWN BEST INTEREST NUMBSKULLS!)

Yes, liberals in Red states who do not vote ARE especially stupid fuckers and numbskulls.

[FiveGoodMen]

21. You seem to be assuming that the victims in this case are the ones

who voted non-Dem or failed to vote at all.

[vkkv]

23. That's not what I wrote.

My OP::


Stupid fuckers ! Get OUT THERE and VOTE !!!!!!

(FOR YOUR OWN BEST INTEREST NUMBSKULLS!)

Yes, liberals in Red states who do not vote ARE especially stupid fuckers and numbskulls.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll repeat the last line::

"Yes, liberals in Red states who do not vote ARE especially stupid fuckers and numbskulls. "
Not a word about voting "non-Dem".
Again, my post is aimed at liberal victims of right-wing policy who do not vote. They may work at McDonalds or not, either way, they are partly responsible for their own situation by not voting for their own best interest.

What a waste of time.

[FiveGoodMen]

24. If the article mentioned whether its main subject voted or not, I missed it

Maybe Ontario Pope isn't one of those who deserve your criticism.

[vkkv]

25. My response was about what YOU specifically wrote about my post.

You didn't read my post correctly.

There are more than FIVE STUPID PEOPLE here at DU who regularly argue for no good purpose.
It's great way to get one's posting numbers up.

[vkkv]

26. Perhaps you might also respond to Post # 22

I'm sure that you won't like it.

But hey, another opportunity for you to get your post numbers up !

[Bengus81]

22. Just like Kansas....VOTE for those who HURT you the most!! Wheeeeeee....

That SHIT has been going on for so long here we even have a book about it.

[riversedge]

27. In Wisconsin Gov Walker also overrides Local control whenever he wants.

[christx30]

28. If you're only making minimum wage after 9 years,

your boss sucks, and you need to get a better job. He's saying that you're not valuable to him, and if he could legally pay you less, he would. Someone with 9 years of experience at a single restaurant has massive knowledge there. He probably knows that place inside out, backwards and forwards. And the creep Mr. Pope works for doesn't value any of it.