If you live in Missouri, you may soon be asked to sign a petition to get a ballot initiative to raise the state’s minimum wage on the November 2012 ballot.
Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan gave approval for supporters to begin to gather voter support after deciding that two petitions that would change the state’s minimum wage laws had met state standards.
The petitions would ask voters to amend the law to increase the state minimum wage to $8.25 an hour, or to the federal minimum wage depending on which is higher. If passed it would increase the minimum wage for employees like waiters and waitresses who get tips to 60 perent of the state minimum wage.
Projections are that if passed it would cost cities and the state more than $1 million a year but that cost would be offset by a $14.4 million increase in sales tax revenue.
Organizers have until next May to get the required number of signatures to get the measure on the November 2012 ballot. The number of signatures has to equal five percent of the total votes cast in the 2008 governor’s election.
