Missouri voters will decide on a ballot measure today that would gradually raise the state’s minimum wage to 12 dollars an hour. New research estimates the effects if Proposition B is approved. According to the Missouri Budget Project, about one-in-four workers, or 667-thousand, would see increased earnings of 24-hundred dollars each year as the result of a 12-dollar minimum wage. Lindsey Baker is outreach and policy specialist with the think-tank. She says the economy would also experience a one-billion-dollar boost.
If approved, starting next year the state’s current minimum wage of seven-dollars-85 cents would increase 85 cents a year until it reaches 12 dollars an hour by 2023. Some opponents have argued it could put an undue burden on small businesses.
Arkansas Voters will also decide on a minimum wage increase. Issue 5 on Today’s ballot, if approved, would raise the base pay for Arkansas workers from the current eight dollars and 50 cents an hour to 11 dollars an hour by 2021. Jonathan Schleifer with The Fairness Project, one of several groups supporting the wage increase, says economists have found that raising wages brings benefits across the entire economy.
If passed, the measure would mean a raise for 300-thousand Arkansans – about 1 in 4 workers in the state. Backers, through the political-action committee Arkansans for a Fair Wage, have spent about 1-point-five million dollars. A group of mainly business owners, Arkansans for a Better Economy, oppose the measure, calling it a “job killer.”