Ballot initiatives that increase the minimum wage passed by wide margins in four small states where conservatives typically dominate on Tuesday, raising the number of states that have approved a minimum wage hike this year to 14.
Seven out of 10 Alaskans voted for an initiative to raise the minimum wage from $7.75 to $9.75 over the next 14 months. In Nebraska, an increase from $7.25 to $9 by January 2016 was approved 59 percent to 41 percent. And in Arkansas, two-thirds of voters supported a $2.25 raise to $8.50, the largest raw-dollar change on the ballot anywhere. The measure’s impact on workers’ wallets will be smaller than that, though, as Walmart’s home state is one of just three to currently have a state minimum wage below the federal level of $7.25 an hour.
The narrowest victory came in South Dakota, where 55 percent of voters approved a measure to raise the small state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 next year. It was the only law approved last night to feature automatic annual increases to match inflation, and South Dakota will be the tenth state to tie future wage levels to increases in the cost of living.
People in those four states cast over 1.1 million total votes in favor of the higher minimum wage laws. The votes will mean that 26 states and the District of Columbia have higher minimum wages than federal law requires as of January, the New York Times notes.
A fifth measure in Illinois advises the legislature to raise the minimum wage to $10 but does not bind lawmakers to the task. It was approved 67-33 with over 2.2 million votes cast in its favor. Voters in the state also made Bruce Rauner (R) their next governor, though, and Rauner made a splash early in the campaign by saying he wanted to lower the state’s minimum wage. He later reversed himself, saying that the state’s minimum wage should be tied to federal wage laws, but it is difficult to imagine Rauner supporting or signing a minimum wage hike.
Local wage hikes were approved by even wider margins in San Francisco (76 percent yes) and Oakland (81 percent yes). Oakland’s law will raise the city pay floor to $12.25 in the coming years, while the San Francisco measure gradually increases the city minimum wage to $15. The latter law matches Seattle’s hard-won legislative compromise as the highest minimum wage laws in the country.
Another California town rejected a similar initiative to raise the local pay floor. Voters in Eureka provided the only defeat for a minimum wage ballot initiative on Tuesday night.
The voters who objected to minimum wage increases can rest easy, judging from the experience of states that raised their minimum wages at the start of this year. Those 13 states saw higher average job growth in the first half of the year than states that didn’t raise their wage floor.
Alan Pyke
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