R-M staff
Some great news for workers across Missouri. In a move that began Jan. 1, the minimum wage will increase across the state.
In Missouri, the minimum wage is increasing from $12 to $12.30. Across the river in Illinois, the hourly rate is jumping up from $13 to $14.
Illinois now has the highest minimum wage in the Midwest.
Both states are way above the federal minimum wage, which remains at $7.25 in the new year.
Illinois and Missouri are part of 22 states where wages are increasing in 2024.
For Missouri, the increase comes after a proposition was passed in 2018. The measure ensured the Show-Me State’s minimum wage would increase by 85 cents per hour each year. That measure ends this this year, according to the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.
Beginning next year, the minimum wage may increase or decrease annually depending on cost-of-living changes reflected in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers.
The state’s minimum wage law does not apply to public employers and it does not allow for the minimum wage rate to be lower than the federal minimum wage rate.
Pay for tipped employees also must equal at least $12.30 per hour and employers are required to pay tipped employees at least 50% of the minimum wage, plus any amount necessary for the employee’s compensations to total a minimum of $12.30.
The U.S. passed its first federal minimum wage law back in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The legislation was signed into law by President Roosevelt and set the minimum wage at $0.25/hour. (Interestingly, the initial legislation was written to pass a $0.40/hour wage, but it had to be scaled back to appease Congressmen from Southern states.) Minimum wage largely rose in step with national productivity growth through the 40s, 50s and 60s, but it has remained mostly stagnant for the last 50 years.
