By Lorie Konish
CNBC, Aug 16, 2024. Also NBC New York, NBC Chicago, NBC Miami, NBC Los Angeles, NBC San Diego, NBC Connecticut, more

The federal minimum wage recently marked a new anniversary. ... The federal minimum wage has now been stuck at $7.25 per hour for 15 years....

Many states have enacted minimum hourly pay rates that are higher than the federal minimum wage. Yet 20 states have wages that are no higher than the federal level, according to Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. They include Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky...

By Michael Calhoun
KMOX St. Louis, August 14, 2024

...Three major ballot initiatives get final approval from the Missouri Secretary of State to appear before voters on November 5th. ... [Including] boosting the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026. "It makes sense on so many levels." Businessman Joe Edwards says he's already paying his workers at that level and offering paid sick leave.

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KWOS Radio (Jefferson City, MO), August 14, 2024. Also KSSZ-FM (93.9 The Eagle, Columbia, MO)

You’ll be casting ballots in November in Missouri on three initiative petitions: one regarding abortion, one raising the minimum wage and one legalizing sports wagering. ...

You’ll also be voting on a measure to raise Missouri’s minimum wage and allow workers to earn paid sick time. It’s being pushed by the group Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy, which says raising the minimum wage and paid sick days are good for business and for the economy. ... Supporters include Columbia’s...

By Jonathan Shorman
Kansas City Star, August 13, 2024. Also Yahoo News.

Missouri voters will decide in November whether to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and guarantee paid sick leave for workers. ... The measure will be called Proposition A on the Nov. 5 ballot. ...

“I supported the 2018 minimum wage ballot initiative and since then we have doubled our staff, despite the pandemic,” said Andy Montee, owner of Mokaska Coffee in St. Joseph and a member of Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy, a group backing the proposal. “Thanks...

By Matthew Sanders, Gabrielle Teiner, Jazsmin Halliburton, Nia Hinson
ABC 17-KMIX TV, Columbia, MO, August 13, 2024

The Missouri Secretary of State's Office said Tuesday ... that the abortion question would be on the November ballot. Questions to raise the minimum wage and guarantee sick leave and to legalize sports gambling in Missouri will also be on the ballot. ...

Joe Chevalier, owner of the Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia and supporter of the minimum wage petition, said he thinks its important to protect Missouri's workforce and thinks the measure would help.

"I've always been...

By Joe McLean, Missouri State Capitol Bureau Chief, Gray Television
KY3 Springfield (MO), July 29, 2024. Also KMOV 4 St. Louis, KCTV 5 (Kansas City), KFVS 12 (Cape Girardeau, MO), WGEM (Quincy, IL)

As the annual cost of living rises, Missourians are on track to vote in November on raising the state’s minimum wage from its current $12.30 an hour. If passed, the measure would increase the hourly minimum to $13.75 starting in January 2025, and then to $15 in January 2026. ... The proposal would also require employers to provide [paid leave]. ...

Some...

By Paolo Confino
Fortune, July 24, 2024. Also Yahoo Finance, AOL News, MSN

The federal minimum wage has not risen from $7.25 for 15 years. That run extends the longest such streak since the federal minimum wage was implemented in 1938.

However, because of inflation and changes in the cost-of-living, the federal minimum wage is worth far less now than at any point since 1949. A full time employee working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year would earn a total $15,080 a year, before taxes. And that assumes they have paid sick days...

By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams, July 24, 2024

Former U.S. President Barack Obama had been in office for just over six months when the federal minimum wage was raised to a paltry $7.25 an hour—where it remains today, 15 years later. ...

Some lawmakers at the federal level have pushed, without success, for legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage. Last year, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) introduced a bill that would incrementally hike the national wage floor to $17 an hour by 2028 and index it to median wages...

North Texas e-News, July 21, 2024
From Business for a Fair Minimum Wage release

July 24 will mark fifteen years since the last federal minimum wage increase in 2009. This is the longest period by far without a raise since the minimum wage was enacted in 1938. The $7.25 federal minimum wage amounts to just $15,080 a year for full-time workers. 

The federal minimum wage peaked in purchasing power in 1968, when the minimum wage was worth $14.70 in today’s dollars, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator. Thirty states now...

By Caroline Hogan
KSHB 41 TV, May 14, 2024

Mike Schroeder loves a black cup of coffee in the morning, but he may love his employees more. The owner of Oddly Correct, a coffee shop on Troost Avenue, pays his employees $19 an hour. That's well above the minimum wage in Missouri.

"The people who are here are the ones that are going to make things happen," Schroeder said. "So if they're not feeling stable or invested, the business isn't gonna go anywhere."

Schroeder actively supports the initiative in Missouri to increase the minimum wage...

St. Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune, May 13, 2024

... Missouri business owners also support the initiative. The business owners are part of Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy, a new and growing coalition of more than 400 business owners who believe raising the minimum wage and paid sick days are good for business.

“Minimum wage increases go right back into the economy as spending at local businesses,” the group said in a statement. “With better wages and earned paid sick time, businesses benefit from lower employee turnover, lower hiring and training costs, increased productivity, better health and safety, and...

By Karen Craigo
Springfield Business Journal, May 10, 2024

Voters may be asked to approve increases to the state’s minimum wage and mandatory sick leave provisions on an upcoming ballot. ...

Business support
Andy Faucett, owner of Bambino’s Cafe LLC, representing Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy, said he is in support of the minimum wage hike and sick leave provision. ...

“We don’t start employees at minimum wage at Bambino’s, and we haven’t for a long time,” he said.

Before the 2018 ballot measure, Faucett said it was already clear Bambino’s would have to...

By Kelly Dereuck
Springfield News-Leader, May 8, 2024. Also Columbia Daily Tribune.

Missouri voters may have the opportunity to decide the fate of four initiative petitions this fall, if the signatures collected in support of each measure are verified. ... On May 2, Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages submitted more than 210,000 signatures in support of their ballot initiative that would gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour and allow workers to earn [paid sick days]  ...

Laurie Knowlton, owner of Pickwick Underground Framing in Springfield and a member of Missouri...

By Kacen Bayless
Kansas City Star, May 1, 2024. Also Yahoo News, AOL News, Hastings Tribune (NE), more

Organizers of a campaign to raise Missouri’s minimum wage and guarantee sick leave for workers dropped off signatures on Wednesday to force a statewide vote on the measure. ...

Joseph Chevalier, the owner of Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia, said in a statement on Wednesday that businesses should be able to plan ahead for the wage increases and paid sick time. “The minimum wage needs to be raised,” he said. “Small businesses like mine depend on...

By Jack Suntrup
St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 1, 2024

JEFFERSON CITY — Organizers for the campaign seeking a higher minimum wage and guaranteed paid sick time off submitted signatures Wednesday to put the question to voters later this year. Representatives for the campaign, Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, said canvassers turned in more than 200,000 signatures ...

At the same time, the group Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy, which said it includes more than 400 members, released a series of statements from business owners supportive of the effort.

“The minimum wage...