In late June, economists at the University of Washington published a study that showed just how harmful the $15/hour minimum wage hike was for the city of Seattle. And despite that evidence, CBS ran a story Wednesday evening bemoaning how the city of St. Louis was planning to reverse their $10/hour minimum wage hike back down to $7.70/hour. “Well, cities all over America have been boosting their minimum wage. It’s up to $15 an hour in Seattle,” announced fill-in Anchor James Brown at the start of the segment. “But it’s going in the opposite direction in St. Louis.”
Reporter Dean Reynolds began his report by talking to a local restaurant owner who was struggling to keep is business afloat because of the hike. “Along with rising sales taxes and meat prices, a minimum wage hike to $10 an hour two months ago made it expensive to stay open,” he noted. “So he’s cut back from five to two days a week for lunch. His hamburgers are smaller, his entrees pricier, and his customers scarcer.”