Yesterday, Missouri voters approved a ballot initiative that will increase the state’s minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2023. Missouri’s minimum wage is currently $7.85 per hour, and the increase will be phased as follows:

• January 1, 2019 - $8.60 per hour
• January 1, 2020 - $9.45 per hour
• January 1, 2021 - $10.30 per hour
• January 1, 2022 - $11.15 per hour
• January 1, 2023 - $12.00 per hour

Each year after 2023, the minimum wage will increase or decrease based on changes in the Consumer Price Index.

The statewide increase follows efforts in St. Louis and Kansas City to increase the local minimum wage, which ultimately were preempted by Missouri’s legislature in 2017.

In addition to increasing the minimum wage, the ballot initiative, which takes effect immediately, increases the amount of liquidated damages for unpaid wages to twice the amount of the unpaid wages and increases the statute of limitations for wage-deficiency actions from two years to three years.