Northeast News
February 1, 2017

There’s been quite a bit of talk lately in the council committee rooms at 414 E. 12th Street about raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. This dog has been paying close attention to this chatter, making note of who the anti-business types are that are pushing this issue. Note that also included in this proposal is the push to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers from the current $3.85 per hour to $6 per hour.
Think about that next time you go to a nice sit-down joint and open the menu. Prepare for some major sticker shock on the new prices that reflect an almost 40% increase for your favorite dish. How long is that restaurant owner going to stay in business after a 40% cost increase? We’ve seen the answer to that question at the Universal Theme Park in Los Angeles, where most food stations have electronic order-taking kiosks that offer picture menus and no backtalk from some 17-something teenager who’s more interested in their cell phone than they are ensuring good customer service to restaurant patrons. Tell us again why it is you deserve $15 an hour, sweetie?
If you’re wondering how this got to where it is, just thank low voter turnout in the 2012 election cycle that allowed a scant 1,700 signatures on an initiative petition to gain a spot on the ballot. That cause notwithstanding, the effort, if its placed on the ballot as the Missouri Supremes say it should be, brings some questions of constitutionality to the table given the State sets the minimum wage, not municipalities. This dog agrees with Mayor Sly James when he says it’s nothing more than an exercise in futility given the wording in the Missouri constitution that states the minimum wage shall be set by the state. But push the Clinton Adams puppet goons over at Freedom Inc. will, because facts and reality take a back seat to sign totin’ mobs and angry “victims” marching from burger joint to burger joint holding up traffic in the process. We’ve seen the online ads seeking paid protesters. We know how this all goes down.
Constitutionality aside, this dog thinks newly elected Missouri Governor Eric Greitens covered the downside to all of this expertly in his State of the State address. During a portion of his address, Greitens outlined that such a wage increase would result in an almost $8000 benefit loss to working families who rely on State-funded child care, Medicaid and the earned income tax credit to make ends meet. But that doesn’t fit the narrative, so be prepared for more grandstanding, more paid by the hour sign totin’ mobs and threats of litigation if the proposal doesn’t hit the April ballot. The Dog stands by our original assertion that maybe if some of these so called victims actually stayed in school and applied themselves, they wouldn’t be in this position. Once again, however, that doesn’t fit the narrative.