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Arkansas and Missouri just approved big minimum wage increases, a liberal victory in red states
Source: Washington Post
Arkansas and Missouri just approved big minimum wage increases, a liberal victory in red states
By Heather Long
November 6 at 11:01 PM
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas and Missouri voters approved substantial increases to their state minimum wages Tuesday as people across the political spectrum endorsed higher pay for low-wage workers.
It marks a decisive victory for a liberal cause in two red states that strongly support President Trump. The wins are likely to embolden progressive activists to try to get minimum wage increases on the ballot in 2020 in other conservative states in the South and Midwest.
Arkansas voted to increase the state’s current minimum wage of $8.50 an hour to $9.25 on Jan. 1, 2019; $10 on Jan. 1, 2020; and $11 on Jan. 1, 2021, a rapid escalation in one of the nation’s poorest states that will result in a quarter of the state’s workers getting a raise. Missouri voters approved a gradual increase of the state’s $7.85 an hour minimum wage to $12 an hour over the next five years, which is expected to result in more than 675,000 workers getting a raise.
The ballot measure in Arkansas — known as Issue 5 — passed with 68 percent of the vote, and Missouri’s Proposition B passed with 62 percent of the vote despite opposition from top Republican lawmakers in both states.
Arkansas and Missouri will soon have among the highest minimum wages of any state, red or blue.
-snip-
By Heather Long
November 6 at 11:01 PM
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas and Missouri voters approved substantial increases to their state minimum wages Tuesday as people across the political spectrum endorsed higher pay for low-wage workers.
It marks a decisive victory for a liberal cause in two red states that strongly support President Trump. The wins are likely to embolden progressive activists to try to get minimum wage increases on the ballot in 2020 in other conservative states in the South and Midwest.
Arkansas voted to increase the state’s current minimum wage of $8.50 an hour to $9.25 on Jan. 1, 2019; $10 on Jan. 1, 2020; and $11 on Jan. 1, 2021, a rapid escalation in one of the nation’s poorest states that will result in a quarter of the state’s workers getting a raise. Missouri voters approved a gradual increase of the state’s $7.85 an hour minimum wage to $12 an hour over the next five years, which is expected to result in more than 675,000 workers getting a raise.
The ballot measure in Arkansas — known as Issue 5 — passed with 68 percent of the vote, and Missouri’s Proposition B passed with 62 percent of the vote despite opposition from top Republican lawmakers in both states.
Arkansas and Missouri will soon have among the highest minimum wages of any state, red or blue.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/11/07/arkansas-just-approved-big-minimum-wage-increase-liberal-victory-red-state/
