Campaign to raise Missouri’s minimum wage to $15 an hour confident it will get on the ballot

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri voters on Wednesday moved a step closer to deciding to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, after a group behind the effort said it attracted nearly double the required number of signatures.

The ballot measure backed by Missouri Jobs with Justice would increase the minimum wage from the current $12.30 per hour to $13.75 per hour next year and then to $15 per hour by 2026.

Citizen-driven changes to Missouri law require more than 100,000 voter signatures to get on the ballot, and Missouri Jobs with Justice said it had submitted about 210,000. Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office must then determine whether at least 115,000 are valid.

“We are confident that voters will have the opportunity to approve this important initiative this fall,” Caitlyn Adams, executive director of Missouri Jobs at Justice Voter Action, said in a statement.

Missouri voters have historically supported an increase in the minimum wage.

After the Republican-led Legislature in 2017 blocked St. Louis and Kansas City from raising wages in those cities, voters approved a statewide minimum wage increase in 2018.

Under that plan, the wage floor – then $7.85 per hour – rose by 85 cents per year until it reached $12 in 2023. This year, wages rose again due to automatic increases linked to inflation.

The latest proposal also includes a requirement that employees receive paid sick leave.

Employees who do not currently have guaranteed sick days would earn one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked under the measure.

Companies with fewer employees would be required to allow at least five paid sick days per year, and larger companies would be required to offer at least seven paid sick days.