The lowest-wage workers in St. Louis are getting a pay-cut, thanks to Republicans in the Missouri legislature.  After the city passed an increase in the minimum wage to ten dollars an hour in 2015, the legislators passed a so-called “pre-emption” law, which prevents municipalities from setting a minimum wage any higher than that of the state.  This will result in St. Louis’s poorest workers getting a pay cut of 23%, from 10 dollars an hour down to $7.70.  The state’s Republican governor Eric Greitens didn’t sign the law, but chose to allow it to become law anyway by not attempting to veto it.  The cut will go into effect on August 28th.  Wanda Rogers, a McDonald’s fast food worker involved in the Fight for 15$ and a union, says that workers are struggling at 7.70 an hour:
Wanda Rogers: “10 dollars an hour, it made it a little easier for us.  How can you give us something and then just come and snatch it back from us.  It’s going to be a struggle for us, and people are going to be out here doing all kind of stuff to try to survive.  McDonald’s is a billion-dollar corporation.  The can afford to pay us fifteen dollars an hour for real.  We really do some hard work, and for y’all to come back and take this ten dollars from us, I don’t think it’s fair.  I wonder if they could live off of 7.70 an hour.  It’s really going to be heartbreaking and it’s really going to hurt us for them to come back and just snatch that from under us like that.  I’m not going to accept it.  We’re going to keep on fighting until we get what we deserve and what we work hard for.”
http://workersindependentnews.com/2017/07/10/state-republicans-cut-wages...