By Clara Bates
Missouri Independent, March 26, 2025. Also Yahoo News, Columbia Missourian, St. Louis Business Journal, Webster County Citizen, Perry County Republic Monitor.

A Republican-led push to overturn the paid sick leave law adopted by Missouri voters last year was debated and approved Wednesday by a state Senate committee. The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Sherri Gallick of Belton, was passed by the House earlier this month and would gut Proposition A, a voter-approved law requiring most employers starting May 1 to provide paid sick time off for hundreds of thousands of qualifying...

By Samantha Walker
KOAM-TV Joplin, March 13, 2025

Mike Draper, owner of Raygun clothing and design in Kansas City, MO, opposes the effort to overturn Proposition A, supported by voters in November. Draper says, "The free market does not mean free of rules. It is we all decide what the rules are and then we compete freely within that market. If the minimum wage goes up those are the rules."

WATCH

By Kurt Erickson
St. Louis Post Dispatch, March 12, 2025

Republican-aligned business groups asked the Missouri Supreme Court Wednesday to overturn the results of a voter-approved increase in the state’s minimum wage. ...

A brief filed by five Missouri business owners said the lawsuit wrongly seeks to overturn the will of the strong majority of voters. The businesses contend that raising the minimum wage boosts consumer spending at local businesses and, along with paid sick leave, will reduce costly employee turnover and lead to increased productivity, improved health and safety, and better customer service.

“As...

By Hannah Falcon
KY3-TV, Springfield (Gray Media), March 12, 2025. Also KFVS-TV (Cape Girardeau), KMOV-TV (St. Louis), KCTV-TV (Kansas City), KAIT-TV (Jonesboro, AR), WGEM-TV (Quincy, IL) 

Missouri voted to raise the minimum wage and require paid sick leave, but now that could be overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court. Arguments were heard Wednesday morning in a lawsuit that claims Proposition A, passed in November, was unconstitutional. ... Several business groups brought this lawsuit forward ... But some small businesses stepped up to defend it. ...

Joe Chevalier, owner of Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia, is...

By Clara Bates
Missouri Independent, March 12, 2025. Also Yahoo News, Jefferson City News Tribune, Springfield News Leader, St. Louis Business Journal, Columbia Daily Tribune, Joplin Globe, KSDK-TV St. Louis, St. Joseph Post, Maryville Forum, Perry County Republic Monitor, Sedalia Democrat, KFEQ Radio St. Joseph

Months after Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved a minimum wage increase and paid sick leave requirements, the new laws face challenges this week in court and the state legislature. 

On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court Court heard arguments in a lawsuit seeking to strike down Proposition A, which guarantees sick leave...

By Johnny Martin and Finnegan Belleau
Columbia Missourian, March 12, 2025. Also Jefferson County Leader.

Business leaders argued Wednesday before the Missouri Supreme Court that a new law increasing the minimum wage and guaranteeing paid sick leave should be overturned. ...

Five small business owners in Missouri, including Columbia’s Yellow Dog Bookshop owner, submitted a brief before Wednesday’s hearing in support of Proposition A.

“In contrast to the special interest groups and trade associations attempting to block Proposition A, these business owners see great value in paying workers a higher minimum wage and ensuring workers...

By Marie Moyer
KMIZ-TV (ABC 17), March 12, 2025

Lawyers for several business groups argued in front of the Missouri Supreme Court in an attempt to overturn Proposition A on Wednesday. ...

Supporters of Prop A include the Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia, Pickwick Underground Framing in Springfield and Oddly Correct Coffee and Raygun in Kansas City.

Joseph Chevalier, of Yellow Dog Bookshop, and Mike Draper, of Raygun, claim the ballot's title was clear and that these changes will help the economy by giving workers more spending power.

"I understand the concept that you can't...

By Ashlyn O'hara
Alaska Public Media, January 23, 2025

Alaska’s minimum wage has increased annually since voters tied the hourly rate to inflation in 2014. Earlier this month, it went up by $0.18 per hour, from $11.73 to $11.91. But this year, the minimum wage is going up twice. On July 1, it’s jumping by more than a dollar – to $13 per hour. That’s after voters passed Ballot Measure 1 last November. The initiative increases Alaska’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2027. ...

Not all businesses oppose the changes, though. More...

By Sean Salai
Washington Times, January 22, 2025

... State-mandated inflation adjustments, recent legislation and voter-approved ballot measures enacted minimum wage increases in 21 states on Jan. 1. ...

“Raising the minimum wage is a very efficient way to boost businesses and the economy because it puts money in the pockets of people who most need to spend it,” said Holly Sklar, CEO of the advocacy group Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. ...

Advocates argue that regular wage hikes foster economic growth, reduce employee turnover and mitigate rising living costs for these workers. ...

Read more

By Kevin Hardy
Stateline, January 10, 2025. Also Yahoo News, Governing, Missouri Independent, St. Joseph News Press (MO), Richmond Register, Virginia Mercury, New Hampshire Bulletin, Laconia Daily Sun (NH), Boston Herald, South Dakota Searchlight, Ohio Capital Journal, Arkansas Advocate, Louisiana Illuminator, Scottsbluff Star Herald (NE), many more

The minimum wage will increase in nearly half the states this year even as the federal wage floor remains stuck at $7.25 per hour. In many states, the minimum wage is automatically adjusted upward as inflation rises. But voters in several states, including deeply red ones such as...

By Rudi Keller
Missouri Independent, January 6, 2025. Also Yahoo News, St. Louis Business Journal, Jefferson City News Tribune, Columbia Missourian, Columbia Daily Tribune, The Pitch KC, KSDK-TV (St. Louis), Maryville Forum, Phelps County Focus (Rolla) St. Joseph Post, Griffon News (St. Joseph), Perry County Republic Monitor, more 

... Proposition A, placed on the ballot via initiative petition, passed in November with 58% of the vote with support from unions, workers’ advocacy groups, social justice and civil rights organizations, and a coalition of more than 500 business owners. ...

But a court challenge filed in...

By Stephen Herzog
Columbia Daily Tribune, January 2, 2025

When the new year came around Wednesday, some of Missouri's lowest wage earners saw a bump in pay, as the minimum wage increased to $13.75 with the passage of Proposition A. ...

Michelle La Fata, owner of Pasta La Fata in Columbia, was one of hundreds of business owners who supported the passage of Prop A.

“Raising the minimum wage is a great way to start the new year," she said. "That money helps workers make ends meet and recirculates throughout our economy as spending at...

By Thomas C. Zambito (USA Today Network)
Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, January 2, 2025. Also Yahoo News

New York’s minimum wage gets a 50-cent bump in January, to $16.50 in Westchester, New York City and Long Island and $15.50 in the rest of the state. This will be the first of two 50-cent increases that will bring the minimum wage to $17 downstate and $16 farther north by 2026. ...

New York joins 20 other states that will increase their minimum wage on Jan. 1, 2025. Fifteen states have a minimum wage of $15 or...

By Ron Ruggless
Nation's Restaurant News, January 2, 2025. Also Supermarket News, CSP Daily News

Minimum wages increased in 21 states on Jan. 1, and more hikes are expected later in the year. The federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 an hour, a rate last adjusted in July 2009. ...

Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a lobbying group, noted that voters in Missouri and Alaska approved ballot measures last year and 15 states plus the District of Columbia have a minimum wage of $15 or higher now or are phasing in scheduled increases to...

By Christina Lengyel
Pittsburgh Post Gazette, January 2, 2025. Original in The Center Square. Also MSN, The Washington Examiner, Franklin County Free Press (PA), WFMZ-TV (Lehigh Valley, PA), North Central PA Online, Altoona Mirror (PA), Times Observer (Warren, PA), Clinton County Record (PA), Colorado Springs Gazette, more

Twenty-one states across the U.S. are raising the minimum wage in 2025. Pennsylvania Democrats would like to see the commonwealth soon join their ranks. Sen. Art Haywood, D-Philadelphia, joined legislators and representatives from the business community Tuesday in Lancaster to draw attention to the state’s $7.25 minimum....