Key wins in three states, momentum across the country
NEW YORK—On Election Day, millions of voters nationwide acted to strengthen economic security for working people in the absence of movement to raise the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Across the country, these voters made their voices heard through state minimum wage ballot measures to raise wages and keep pace with the cost of living. These campaigns and their momentum will especially protect Black and brown workers, who are disproportionately impacted by low wages and economic instability.
“Voters have sent a clear message to lawmakers from their own statehouses all the way to Washington that raising wages is a priority,” said Rebecca Dixon, president and CEO of the National Employment Law Project. “Thanks to the vigorous campaigning of workers and local organizers, hundreds of thousands of people are set to earn a long-past-due raise. With no federal wage increases since 2009, it’s time Congress works just as hard as these workers. The message from these ballots is clear: a federal increase is overdue.”
Voters made their voices heard via state minimum wage ballot measures to raise wages and keep pace with rising living costs.
Voters in Alaska, Arizona, California, Massachusetts, and Missouri all had measures related to their state minimum wage. Key wins included two states that voted Republican at the federal level passing minimum wage increases:
- Alaska: Ballot Measure 1, a policy that will increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2027.
- Missouri: Proposition A, a proposal that will increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 by January 1, 2026.
In Arizona, voters rejected an anti-worker ballot initiative targeting tipped workers. Proposition 138 would have allowed employers to pay tipped workers 25% less than the minimum wage, decreasing their cash wage and forcing them to depend on tips for more of their earnings compared to current law. Currently, the tipped wage is a set $3 less than the full minimum wage.
While a proposition in California that would have raised the state’s minimum wage to $18 has yet to be called after proponents were vastly outspent by opponents, many California cities and counties have enacted minimum wages above the state floor, and the state’s minimum wage, pegged to inflation, will reach $18 in a few years. In Massachusetts, an initiative to eliminate the subminimum wage for tipped workers—as many other states have done—failed after proponents were similarly vastly outspent by industry opponents.
“Many of us in the movement recall when a $15 minimum wage was a pie in the sky idea less than a decade ago,” Dixon continued. “Voters clearly want good-paying jobs, and the results of these ballot measures show that they will not wait around for Congress to act. Instead, voters are taking direct action to pass meaningful legislation that uplifts Black and brown workers.”
Ballot initiatives also have momentum beyond 2024. In Oklahoma, voters will decide on a minimum wage increase in June 2026 after a delay instigated by the state’s governor earlier this year. Meanwhile, Michigan’s recent Supreme Court decision upheld a voter-approved initiative to raise the minimum wage and phase out the tip credit, overturning prior attempts by a Republican-led legislature to weaken these protections. Nearly two dozen other states are also set to have minimum wage increases kick in next year following prior ballot initiatives and passed legislation.
