Minimum wage initiative for Missouri seeks $15 per hour

Missouri's minimum wage, currently at $12 per hour, may be the subject of a new ballot push in 2024, with supporters seeking a rise to $15 an hour by 2027.

Kansas City labor organizer Terrence Wise is advocating raising the minimum to $13.50 per hour starting Jan. 1, 2025, with subsequent 75-cent an hour increases annually until 2027.

Such an effort would require collecting sufficient signatures to place a plebiscite before state voters.

In 2018, Missouri voters turned to the polls to pass Proposition B, a referendum that raised the minimum incrementally to the current $12 in 2023.

After this year, new minimum wage increases are by law indexed to the Consumer Price Index.

Tipped employees, according to the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, must be paid at least half of the prevailing minimum.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, Missouri is one of 30 states with a minimum wage exceeding the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.

Only Washington, California and Massachusetts have minimum wages set at $15 per hour as of 2023, but many state legislatures are said to be considering an increase.

In February, Gov. Mike Parson signed a cost-of-living pay increase for Missouri state employees, hiking pay rates by 8.7%.

Multiple private companies with local operations have already moved to the $15 level and beyond.

A few examples

Saint Francis Health System announced a $15 per hour minimum started in October 2021.

SoutheastHEALTH matched its hospital competitor a year later, also moving to $15.

Arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby, with a store in Cape Girardeau, set its minimum at $18.50 hourly beginning in January 2022.

Do you want more business news? Check out B Magazine, and the B Magazine email newsletter. Go to www.semissourian.com/newsletters to find out more.