State Supreme Court will hear the case for the city’s attempted wage increase.
SEIU Spent Big on Minimum Wage Fight in St. Louis
The
push for a higher minimum wage nationwide isn’t going anywhere anytime soon,
but Missouri is not new to the battleground.
According
to data recently released, the Service Employees International Union has spent
a total of $5,459,355 since 2012 on the effort to push for a $15 minimum wage
in St. Louis. The Center for Union Facts analyzed the SEIU’s 2015 financial
disclosures with the Department of Labor to produce this latest report.
Meanwhile,
the SEIU financial filing also shows that their union’s membership has been on
a downward trend. Since 2011, the year before the start of the fight for a $15
minimum wage, their membership rolls have dropped by nearly 34,000.
“While
the SEIU has made some headway in its push for a job-killing $15 minimum wage,
working Americans appear to be sending a clear message to SEIU big spenders:
‘Find a way to create jobs rather than diminishing them,’” said Richard Berman,
executive director of the Center for Union Facts, in a press release about the
report. “The $15 campaign may generate some legislative wins, but even former
SEIU boss Andy Stern has acknowledged that this big-spending strategy isn’t
sustainable.”
Meanwhile,
the effort to hike St. Louis’ minimum wage will go back to court sometime this
year. Last year’s increase passed after Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed House Bill 722—
which prohibits localities from raising the minimum wage beyond the state’s
base wage rate—but the Legislature then overturned the veto and a Missouri
circuit judge struck down the increase. Now, the matter heads to the Missouri Supreme
Court, which agreed to hear a challenge to the law and the judge’s ruling.
