How St. Louis Workers Won and Then Lost a Minimum-Wage Hike
Bettie Douglas has worked at a McDonald's in St. Louis for 10 years. For the last three months, she's made $10 per hour. On Monday, when she got to work, she was working for $7.90 per hour.
Douglas didn’t get demoted, she isn’t in trouble with her bosses, and she didn’t change jobs. What changed is that a new Missouri law went into effect Monday, capping the minimum wage across the state at $7.70. The law overturned higher minimum wages set by St. Louis and Kansas City, in effect cutting many low-income workers’ take-home pay overnight.
“It’s horrible. It’s ridiculous. It’s just ridiculous,” Douglas told me during a break from her shift on Monday. She’s an activist who has been involved in the Fight for $15 and in a group lobbying St. Louis businesses to maintain
