In a badly conceived editorial on March 2, the Kansas City Star railed against allowing private and religious schools to be exempt from Missouri’s minimum wage increase. It is the exemption for religious schools [read: Catholic ones] that exercises the editors the most. How do we know? Because it repeatedly singles out religious organizations for criticism.
Why is the editorial badly conceived? Because it is palpably hypocritical. It admits that public employers, including the public schools, are exempt from the minimum wage law, yet it is only mildly critical of this exception. In other words, if exemptions from this law are a problem, why has the Star consistently refused to take the public schools to task?
Moreover, why didn’t the Kansas City Star list all the organizations that are exempt from the minimum wage? They include tipped employees, small businesses, and most farm workers. Under federal law, seasonal workers, public school teachers and administrators, and many others are exempt from the minimum wage.
The editorial gives away its bias by focusing on why religious schools are afforded exemptions from some laws.
