- Four states — Alaska, California, Massachusetts, and Missouri — are voting on some form of minimum wage hike.
- In Missouri, voters opted to raise the minimum wage.
- Workers in other states are still waiting to see how their pay might change.
Pay is on the ballot, and some workers are set to get a raise.
Four states — Massachusetts, Missouri, California, and Alaska — all have some form of referendum on whether to hike the minimum wage on their ballots. In Massachusetts, voters decided on a proposal that would give workers who rely on tips a bump in their base pay, while minimum wage workers in three other states could see a broad pay bump.
In Arizona, voters are weighing in on whether to decrease the tipped minimum wage — provided employers can show that workers’ wages are still $2 above the state minimum when accounting for tips.
Shortly after polls closed in Missouri, it was clear that the referendum passed. Meanwhile, Massachusetts rejected its proposal. The other states’ voters are still awaiting their results.
Missouri
In Missouri, voters have opted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 by 2026. The state voted 57.7% in favor of Proposition A, which will first hike the minimum wage to $13.75 an hour on January 1, 2025, and then raise it again to $15 an hour on January 1, 2026.
Starting in 2027, the wage will be pegged to inflation. The measure also mandates that employers give their workers an hour of paid leave for every 30 hours they work.
As the measure passes, The New York Times’ projections show that Missouri voted for President Donald Trump, who said he would “consider” a minimum wage hike if it proved beneficial for small businesses. His opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, has pledged support for raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour.
A group of Missouri business owners in favor of the measure praised Proposition A’s passage on Tuesday evening.
“Proposition A will strengthen Missouri’s workforce and businesses,” David Burmeister, owner of Midwest Pasta Co. in St. Louis, said in a press release. “Raising the minimum wage will increase people’s ability to shop at our business and local businesses across Missouri. We’ve seen that paying better wages is better business. Employees are happier at work and do a better job.”
Massachusetts
In Massachusetts, tipped workers won’t see their pay slowly rise to meet the state’s minimum wage.
A measure failed, with 64% of voters rejecting it, per the Times’ projections.
Voters rejected a system where their pay was meant to be equivalent to the state’s minimum wage of $15 through a combination of the $6.75 tipped wage and tips.
Had the measure passed, it would have begun taking shape on January 1, 2025.
Massachusetts tipped workers would have had their hourly paychecks shake out to 64% of the state’s minimum wage in addition to tips. Then, the tipped wage would have risen for five years until reaching full parity with the state’s pay by 2029.
Arizona
In Arizona, voters have not opted to let employers reduce their base pay for tipped workers.
Proposition 138 proposed allowing employers to pay tipped workers up to 25% less than the state’s minimum wage, with the corollary that employers need to establish their workers are still making the minimum wage plus an additional $2 an hour when accounting for tips.
According to The New York Times’ projections, voters rejected the measure by nearly 76%.
That means that employers in Arizona can continue to pay their tipped workers $3 less than the current hourly minimum wage as long as workers are still making at least the minimum wage when accounting for tips.
Are you a worker earning at or near the minimum wage in your state? Share your story with this reporter at jkaplan@businessinsider.com.
