On the Ballot | Missouri’s Minimum Wage

Introduction

Proposition A will appear on Missouri’s November ballot, asking voters to decide on raising the state’s minimum wage and implementing paid sick leave. If approved, the minimum wage would increase to $13.75 in 2025 and $15 in 2026, with annual adjustments based on inflation. The law would also require businesses to provide paid sick time, giving workers one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. The initiative was placed on the ballot through Missouri’s petition process, and voters will need to determine its impact on wages and sick leave policies statewide.

Video Transcript

Julie Freijat [Data Journalist – Flatland]: Should we increase the minimum wage in Missouri? 

If you’re a Missourian, it’s a question that is on your ballot this year. 

Should we increase the current minimum wage to $13.75 per hour in 2025 and then again to $15 per hour in 2026. If the measure passes, employers would also be required to provide 1 hour of paid sick leave time for every 30 hours worked. Currently there is no requirement for employers to provide paid sick leave in Missouri. 

The minimum wage in Missouri is currently $12.30 per hour and is updated yearly to match the Consumer Price Index.  

Now, the minimum wage in Missouri has been adjusted before. In 2018, voters approved an initiative that increased the minimum wage each year until it reached $12 in 2023 and then adjusted the wage based on the Consumer Price Index. Which this is why the minimum wage this year was increased to $12.30. 

So, how well does the current minimum wage support Missouri workers? 

Let’s do some math… and remember we are estimating here. 

Based on the current minimum wage a full time worker in the state of Missouri would make $492 per week or $2132 per month. According to Zillow, the average rent is $1345 a month. Subtract that number from one month’s pay and you are left with about $787 for the month, not excluding taxes, benefits, utilities and other bills, food, toiletries and any other expenses you would have to pay. 

This is what some workers have to say about living off of this wage. 

Fran Marion [Shift Manager – McDonald’s]: No matter what I brought home, it still was not enough to pay all of my bills. You’re literally living paycheck to paycheck. My kids, we went without water and we went without electricity to the point where I had to put my kids at another location so that they can have lights and water. 

That hurt my soul because I felt that as a parent I was a failure to my kids because they weren’t with me. I couldn’t be the mother that I was supposed to be. 

So, it’s hard for us working class to keep up with the economy. Us increasing it to $15 would make it so that we’re not facing homelessness, we’re not facing lights getting shut off, or gas getting shut off. We deserve a living wage. We deserve paid sick days. 

Julie Freijat: The living wage calculator from MIT argues that the living wage for one adult and no children in Kansas City, Missouri should be $21.70 an hour. That’s about a $9 different from the current minimum wage. Per week that’s a difference of about $376 dollars. Per month that’s a difference of about $1,629. 

Proponents of raising the minimum wage argue that adjusting the minimum wage would provide more financial security for Missourians. Estimates from  Missourians for Healthy Families and fair wages, who support the initiative, suggest that an increase would impact just under 1 in 4 working Missourians. 

Opponents of raising the minimum wage argue that an increase to $15 would negatively impact low-income workers. Citing a study out of Seattle where the minimum wage was increased to $15 in 2017. 

Something else to know is that Missouri’s current minimum wage is higher than in some other states. Take Kansas for example, Kansas has no minimum wage outside of the Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. 

So, should we increase the minimum wage in Missouri? Well, that’s up to you. 

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