Minimum wage hike circulated for Missouri’s 2024 ballot

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KY3) - Multiple efforts are underway to collect enough signatures to place a minimum wage increase question on that ballot for Missourians in 2024.

One proposed amendment, submitted by Kansas City labor organizer Terrence Wise, would see the minimum wage increased from the current $12.00 per hour to $13.50 per hour starting January 1, 2025. The minimum would then increase by $0.75 per hour each year until 2027, landing it at $15 per hour.

From there, the minimum would be adjusted to changes in the Consumer Price Index. Note: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, the Consumer Price Index is “a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods.”

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

Past Missouri Minimum Wage Increases:

• 2015 = $7.65
• 2016 = $7.65
• 2017 = $7.70
• 2018 = $7.85 2019 = $8.60
• 2020 = $9.45
• 2021 = $10.30
• 2022 = $11.15
• 2023 = $12.00

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