This election season, there’s understandably been intense focus on ballot questions that will affect reproductive rights, but there’s been less discussion of the fact that multiple states will also be voting on whether to raise their minimum wage and grant workers paid sick time.
Twenty-six states have an initiated constitutional amendment process, which allows citizens to place legislation on the ballot for a vote by gathering a predetermined number of signatures. The strategy is often an effective tool for activists who are up against right-wing state legislatures opposed to liberal reforms.
The Fairness Project is an organization founded on the premise that increasing wages, advocating for working families and improving benefits are popular, nonpartisan priorities if you can get them in front of voters.
“If you can put it on the ballot, people love to vote for a raise,” the group’s executive director, Kelly Hall, told Truthout. “This strategy has resulted in raising the wage every time it has gone on the ballot. It’s been a very effective tool for helping to separate common-sense issues like raising the wage from the partisan politics that keep these highly popular issues locked up in state houses.”
As Hall notes, red state voters living in states with the amendment process have consistently elected to raise wages, expand health coverage and establish paid sick leave.
“These issues are associated with progressives, but they have a great deal of support on the ground everywhere,” Hall said. “Fighting back against ‘Obamacare’ might be a litmus test for how much of an extreme conservative you are, people on the ground support having health care for their low-income neighbors and having the funds to keep their hospitals open. There is a lot more complexity in how folks want to support their communities than the candidates they are given the option to vote for necessarily reflect.”
When they vote in November, Missouri voters will decide on Proposition A, which would raise the state’s minimum wage and mandate paid sick leave for all private employees. If passed, the minimum wage would rise from $12.30 to $13.75 by 2025, and reach $15 per hour in 2026. Employers would be required to provide one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked.
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the move would mean more money for about 900,000........