To Raise Or Not To Raise: Kansas City Voters Mull Minimum Wage

KANSAS CITY, MO — Kansas City, Missouri is deciding whether to raise the city's minimum wage despite a new state law forbidding cities from enacting local rules on the issue.

Voters on Tuesday are weighing whether to set the minimum wage at $10 per hour on Aug. 24 and increase it each year beginning on Sept. 1, 2019, until it reaches $15 per hour in 2022. The measure is among several in local elections across Missouri.

If passed, it's unclear what would happen next. Missouri's Republican-led Legislature passed a measure in May barring local governments from enacting minimum wages different from the state's minimum. Some advocates in Kansas City are pushing for a lawsuit. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

The state law is effective Aug. 28. It forced St. Louis to stop requiring a $10 minimum wage and revert to the state minimum of $7.70 per hour. The St. Louis law was the subject of a two-year court battle before the Missouri Supreme Court allowed it in May. Days later, the new state law was passed that, in effect, struck down the St. Louis law.

More than 100 St. Louis businesses have signed a pledge to keep paying their employees more than $10 despite the rollback.

Kansas City voters will also consider a measure to raise sales tax to help fund a 25-mile rapid rail route from Vivion Road to the Kansas City Zoo, with an extension to the Truman Sports Complex. Another proposal would prohibit spending on streetcar expansion without approval from voters.

The election also will include tax proposals in several St. Louis suburbs, including a measure to pay for infrastructure improvements in St. Ann and one to fund police pensions in Overland.

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