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Attack of the Wage-Eating Monsters, Part II |
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The politicians and business groups who fight so fiercely against minimum wage workers resemble the zombies from the “Night of the Living Dead.” No matter how many times you whack off an arm or put a stake through their hearts, they keep coming back. Last seen in Montana, opponents of state increases in the minimum wage now have popped up in Missouri.
With the backing of the Missouri Restaurant Association and other business groups, state legislators are using what was supposed to be a simple adjustment to the state’s new minimum wage law regarding overtime pay for firefighters and police officers to ban tipped workers from getting a raise and to eliminate the law’s annual cost of living adjustment.
The move follows a campaign by workers and the public in which they successfully urged Gov. Matt Blunt (R) to reverse his own Department of Labor’s ruling on the minimum wage increase. The wage boost, which Missouri voters approved by a 76 percent margin in November, raises the hourly wage from $5.15 to $6.50 and ensures the cost of living adjustment (COLA).
Prior to the passage of the Missouri ballot initiative, tipped workers were covered by the federal minimum wage law. As such, nearly all tipped workers in Missouri were entitled to a cash wage of only $2.13 per hour, which is the cash wage for tipped workers set at the federal level.
The new state law, which now covers tipped workers, says those workers must be paid 50 percent of the minimum wage with tips making up the difference—$3.25 an hour plus tips. But the state Labor Department initially ruled the new measure did not apply to workers who earn tips and said employers only had to pay workers $2.13 an hour.
Having lost that fight, Republican lawmakers now have added the tipped worker exclusion and COLA elimination to the first responders’ overtime bill.
Here’s what the leader of the pay-cut gang, Rep. Shannon Cooper (R), chairman of the House Rules Committee says:
People were unaware of the consequences when they voted for this.
How’s that? The Missouri public ain’t dumb. They knew exactly what they were voting for: a $1.35-an-hour wage increase for all workers and a cost of living provision.
As they did to win overwhelming support for the November ballot measure, unions and other workers’ and community organizations are mobilizing to defeat the pay cut legislation. Says Aaron Burnett, an organizer with St. Louis Area Jobs with Justice:
We’ve been working with hundreds of waiters and waitresses around the state and they’re outraged Republican legislators don’t even want them to earn $3.25 an hour.
If you are a Missouri resident, click here to send a message to your lawmakers to demand legislators preserve, not gut, the new minimum wage law.
FYI, Missouri is one of 31 states with a higher minimum wage than the federal $5.15 an hour. Voters in six states last year approved increases. In all, 21 states have boosted their minimum wage rates since 2006.
Meanwhile, the minimum wage hostage crisis in the U.S. Senate hit the 94-day mark today. Senate Republicans are sitting on a federal minimum wage increase until a multibillion-dollar ransom in the form of business tax cuts is delivered. Although the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to raise the federal wage floor to $7.25 an hour in January, the stalemate began when Senate Republicans refused to pass a similar measure without the hefty ransom.
5 Comments
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I can remember when I was growing up that minimum wage was primarily for kids still in school who wanted to earn some extra money. But now huge numbers of adults are trying to support a family with minimum wage. The republicans need to understand that one day it could be their adult child trying to make a living on these unlivable wages. The need to pass minimum wage increases is a must. So every one should email or phone their state and federal reps. and tell them to give labor back some dignity, vote for this increase.
I would like to share the fact that corporations care more about corporate profits than the well being of the American People. They only care about tax breaks for the RICH and of course no raise in the minimum wage. Please help us pass the minimum wage increase in every state. These workers need the raise.
It is criminal that tips are figured into minimum wage. Tips are a “bonus” by the customer for good service. They have nothing to do with the employers compensation to an employee. What you are doing when you figure tips into a employee’s base wage is requiring the employee to pay the employer to work for them, it is criminal and should be removed from all minimum wage laws.
A worker who performs well and recieves tips increases the business for the employer. Then you want to penalize that person by reducing his hourly wage so he does not make any more than minimum wage., if they make that depending on the generosity of their customers. It is criminal!!!!!!!!!!!
We need to give these lawmakers a big fat pay cut. In fact lets see if they are eligible for unemployment compensation after the next election.
How am I supposed to tell folks about all the fun I had while visiting my niece in southwestern Missouri if all I can remember is how poor everyone seemed to be? The economy seemed very depressed, and I met a lot of jobless people.
There are very few jobs to be had in the first place, and most of them are service jobs in the resort areas—how can these companies possibly rationalize sub-standard wages?And for waitresses and waiters who serve hundreds of customers a day, by the bus loads—how can they live on $2.15 per hour if they have to pool their tips?
The “Show Me” state needs to show its working people a little more respect; if there isn’t already a voter registration drive to get those workers’ votes there should be.