ST. LOUIS – In August just across the Mississippi River from Illinois in St. Louis, the minimum wage will drop from $10 an hour to $7.70 per hour – while in Illinois' Cook County starting pay in municipalities that haven't opted out yet will gradually cost employers $13 per hour in 2020.
Why did Missouri's "red" legislature vote that way? Here's what Missouri Governor Eric Greitens said about it:
The Republican governor said the St. Louis ordinance that raised the minimum wage will "kill jobs, and despite what you hear from liberals, it will take money out of people's pockets."
"This increase in the minimum wage might read pretty on paper, but it doesn't work in practice. Government imposes an arbitrary wage, and small businesses either have to cut people's hours or let them go," he said in a statement released last week.
He also cited a recent study in Seattle, which voted in 2014 to gradually hike its minimum wage to $15 an hour.
The study from University of Washington researchers showed that the Seattle wage hike may be hurting low-wage workers. They ultimately made $125 less each month on average, as their hours dropped, the report found. The Washington study has been the center of controversy as liberal groups questioned its methodology.
Read the rest HERE. What a difference a few hundred miles makes. Sanity beyond our borders.
