Missourians on Tuesday voted to support an amendment to the state law that will gradually increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour, as well as guarantee paid sick days.
About 30 people chatted over food and drinks at the Marriott on Grand that evening to watch the results for proposition A stream in.
Gabriella Love, a certified medical technician at Hillside healthcare center spoke as results poured in around 11 p.m.
“We did the hard work ourselves,” she said.
Love was one of over 2,000 Missourians who garnered over 200,000 signatures that landed proposition A on the ballot this election.
“Nobody can live on $12.50,” she told the American. “Inflation is real and prices are not getting lower.”
The amendment, proposition A, would raise the minimum wage in two intervals, the first taking effect on January 1, 2025. The wage would increase from what’s currently $12.30 to $13.75 on that day.
By January 1, 2026, the wage will increase to $15 an hour. The proposition would also make employers pay their workforce for sick days.
Under the amendment, small businesses with under 15 workers must allow their employees to take up to five days per year. Larger businesses must allow up to seven days. Employees will be able to take the leave to care for themselves or family members.
Those who oppose the amendment argue it will put a strain on small businesses as the workforce will become more expensive to hire, and put on paid leave.
But proposition A campaign manager Richard von Glahn said more than 500 small businesses in Missouri back the proposition, and believe it will move the economy forward.
“When lower wage workers make a higher income, they put it towards local businesses,” he said.
Love said she’s tired of seeing her coworkers earn so little and stretch their budgets so thin. She said she worries about Missouri families who rely on minimum wage jobs to survive.
“Everybody deserves a chance to make a liveable wage and provide for their families,” she said.