By Sylvester Brown Jr.
St. Louis American, October 31, 2024

“I built my businesses on a belief in the American Dream, and that includes paying people fairly so they can make a living.” Joe Edwards, the owner of Blueberry Hill restaurant and music club, the Moonrise Hotel, The Pageant and other University City businesses is one of the 500 businesses in the Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy coalition urging voters to vote “yes” on Proposition A. ...

The business coalition says raising the minimum wage and enabling workers to earn paid sick time will...

By Chrystal Blair
Public News Service, October 31, 2024. Also MSN, KRCU (Cape Girardeau, MO), KXCV-FM (Maryville, MO), KMA-FM (Shenendoah, IA), more.

More than 500 Missouri businesses are rallying for Proposition A, pushing for a $15 per hour minimum wage and paid sick leave by 2026.

Backed by the group Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy, Proposition A plans to raise the minimum wage to $13.75 an hour next year and $15 by 2026, with additional annual cost-of-living adjustments. Tipped workers must earn at least half the minimum rate, plus tips.

Andi Montee...

By Brian Hauswirth
Eagle 93.9, Columbia, October 29, 2024

Some mid-Missouri restaurant leaders have differing views about a November ballot measure to increase the state’s minimum wage to $13.75 an hour in January and raise it to $15 an hour in 2026. ...

While the Missouri Restaurant Association (MRA) opposes Proposition A, the owner of Columbia’s Pasta La Fata supports the measure. The MRA says the measure will make eating out and buying groceries more expensive. But Pasta La Fata owner Michelle La Fata sees it differently, predicting it will help working people and businesses...

By Hannah Falcon
KMOV-TV (First Alert 4) Jefferson City, Oct 28, 2024. Also KY3-TV (Springfield), KFVS-TV (Cape Girardeau), KCTV 5 (Kansas City), WGEM-TV (Quincy, IL), KAIT-TV (Jonesboro, AR).

There is only one week left for Missourians to vote on whether or not to increase the minimum wage and require paid sick leave.

If you walk into Pasta La Fata in Columbia, you’d hear Italian music over the speakers, smell the sauce cooking, and see a young worker making fresh noodles. This brick-and-mortar restaurant is the dream come true of owner Michelle La Fata. Her team...

Op-Ed By Erik Milan
Springfield News-Leader, October 27, 2024. Also in the Joplin Globe.

As a local business owner, I’m invested in my business and our community. I’m invested in my employees and our customers.

I support Proposition A because it will help us thrive together. It would help people make a living by raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2026. It would ensure that working people can earn some paid sick time and aren’t penalized for being sick.

If we didn’t have happy employees at our music store, we wouldn’t have happy customers...

Op-Ed By Joseph Chevalier
Columbia Daily Tribune, October 26, 2024

My favorite coffee mug is a gift from my wife, Kelsey. It has an image of a typewriter and the words “write your own story.”

We wrote our own story when we opened Yellow Dog Bookshop in 2013. From the beginning, we wanted our shop to be a welcoming place that could brighten people’s lives and encourage them to write their own story.

We all have a great opportunity now to help Missourians write their own stories by voting Yes on Proposition A.

By raising...

By Kyla Asbury
St. Louis Record, Oct 25, 2024

As early voting kicks off in Missouri, a broad coalition of business owners is standing firmly behind a ballot initiative that aims to raise the minimum wage and establish paid sick leave for workers.

The business owners argue that these changes will not only benefit employees but also enhance local economies by reducing turnover, increasing productivity and fostering stronger customer service.

In Missouri, more than 500 businesses have joined the Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy coalition, backing Proposition A. 

The initiative seeks to raise the...

By Kelly Dereuck
Missouri Business Alert, Oct 25, 2024

As a small business owner, Joe Chevalier believes in passing along the profits he earns to his staff in the form of higher wages. Employees at his store, Yellow Dog Bookshop in downtown Columbia, make more than the current state minimum wage of $12.30 an hour, and Chevalier feels that has helped with employee retention.

“It's good to have a staff that's going to stay with you, and if they're paid more, then they're more likely to stay there,” Chevalier said. “You're not going to have...

By Aimee Picchi
CBS News MoneyWatch, October 24,2024

Half of the eight battleground states in this year's U.S. presidential election use the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, a rate that hasn't changed since 2009 despite a 47% surge in the cost of living since then.  ...

"It's ridiculous that Pennsylvania has a lower minimum wage than its neighbors as well as states like Arkansas, Florida and Nebraska, where voters had a chance to pass raises through ballot initiatives," Holly Sklar, CEO of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a group that advocates for higher...

By Ava White
Alaska Public Media, October 24, 2024. Also KTOO (Juneau)

David Ottoson has owned Rainbow Foods, a natural grocery store in Juneau for 44 years. Most of his 30 employees already earn more than $15 an hour, but a handful of highschoolers make $14. All of them are eligible to earn paid time off. 

He said his wages are competitive with other grocery stores, and thinks it’s part of the reason he’s able to retain employees. ...

Ottoson said he supports the measure because Alaskans shouldn’t have to choose between being sick and...

By Marta Mieze
Springfield News Leader, Oct 22, 2024

The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce is opposed to a statewide proposition on the Nov. 5 ballot that asks voters to raise minimum wage and mandate paid sick leave. ... However, a statewide group of more than 500 businesses is on the other side of the issue. The Missouri Business Coalition expressed its support for Proposition A this week. In a statement, the coalition said increasing wages and enabling workers to earn paid sick leave will ultimately boost spending at local businesses, reduce costly employee turnover...

By Caroline Hogan
KSHB-TV Kansas City, October 22, 2024

In November, Missourian's will vote on Proposition A, which would raise the state's minimum wage, as well as enforce paid sick leave. ...

KSHB has talked to employers that are in favor of Proposition A, like Oddly Correct.

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

Read more

St. Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune, October 21, 2024

A coalition of more than 500 Missouri business owners and executives across the state released a statement Oct. 10 supporting Proposition A, which would raise Missouri’s minimum wage to $15 by 2026 and enable workers to earn paid sick leave. ...

According to the statement from the group Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy: “Workers are also customers. Minimum wage increases go right back into the economy as spending at local businesses. Raising the minimum wage and paid sick days are good for business.”

BUSINESS OWNERS IN...

By Sophia Anderson
Columbia Missourian, Oct 21, 2024. Also KBIA-FM (NPR) Columbia.

Missourians will vote Nov. 5 on a measure to gradually raise the minimum wage and mandate paid sick leave.

If Proposition A is passed, the minimum wage would increase to $13.75 on Jan. 1, and to $15 by Jan. 1, 2026. Starting in 2027, the state would adjust the minimum wage annually based on the Consumer Price Index. This change would impact about 900,000 workers, or about a third of all workers in Missouri, according to the Economic Policy Institute ...

[M]ore than...

Op-Ed by Bill Thompson
Kansas City Star, October 20, 2024. Also Yahoo News.

The Kansas City Star recently reported that more than 450 businesses across Missouri have pledged their support to a measure that would both raise the minimum wage and allow workers to earn paid sick time off. In November, Missouri voters will have the opportunity to vote on the measure, which is Proposition A on the ballot. Proposition A gives Missouri voters the chance to pass a life-changing measure that would help hardworking parents like me put more food on the table and...