A circuit judge struck down the city’s minimum wage law on Wednesday just hours before it was set to go into force.
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In his ruling, Judge Steven Ohmer said the ordinance “is not in conformity with the laws of Missouri”. $11 in 2018 isn’t enough for me, it won’t get me out of the boarding house I now live in, and it’s not even close to what the work I do at McDonald’s is worth.
Ohmer’s ruling comes the day before the minimum wage would have gone up to $8.25 an hour in the city right away, and then would have stair-cased up to $11 hour in a few years. “The city doesn’t have the authority to do what it did”. “We expect this lower court ruling will be appealed while we all continue to work to have the consensus of voters to increase the minimum wage reflected by our elected officials at the local, state and federal levels”. Mayor Francis Slay signed the bill. “We are heartened that the judge agreed with the city on three of the five counts, but disappointed in the court’s decision on two of them”.
“It is hereby declared that Ordinance 70078 is void and Missouri’s minimum wage law, sections 290.500 to 290.530 esmo”. “No local government has ever had the authority to issue an ordinance that directly violates state law. We believe the court made a correct decision”, group President Ray McCarty said in a statement.
A consortium of groups, mainly businesses such as restaurants, sued to stop the increase, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1RILo1B ) reported.
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East St. Louis, Illinois (KTRS) Talks are expected resume today in the East St. Louis teachers’ strike.
