By Jonathan Lieber
KRCG-TV (CBS), December 30, 2025
JEFFERSON CITY — In November 2024, Missourians voted to pass a ballot initiative that increase the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026.
With the wage increase, Missouri will have one of the highest minimum wages of its eight bordering states. Illinois increased its $15 per hour minimum wage on Jan 1, 2025, while Nebraska will also increase its minimum wage to $15 per hour on Jan 1, 2026. ...
"Any thing you can do to increase health, flexibility and spending power of the population at large is going to be good for the American economy," said Mike Draper, owner of Raygun in Kansas City.
Draper is one of over 500 business owners or managers in Missouri that signed the Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy Statement that supported the raise in state minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026, as well as the ability for employers to earn paid sick time.
"If we're going to have retail workers who are working long hours qualifying for government subsidies because wages haven't kept up with the cost of living, then we need to change something," said Draper.
Despite the ballot initiative passing by over 57% in 2024, Governor Mike Kehoe signed HB567 into law on July 10, 2025. The law eliminates the requirement of paid sick time. ...
"The State of Missouri did not raise this minimum wage. They went out of their way to try and stop it. The only reason it passed is because the general population got together and made it happen through direct democracy," said Draper. ...