Tagged: minimum wage

The minimum wage in Missouri increased 10 cents to $7.35 cents to start the New Year.

That may go up in the near future.

In the State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said he wants to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour.

“Today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. Even with the tax relief we've put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That's wrong,” Obama said.

Missouri's minimum wage will rise by a dime to $7.35 an hour in 2013.

For the past several years, Missouri has followed the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. That's because the federal rate was equal to or greater than the state's minimum, which is adjusted annually based on the cost of living.

But inflation has now pushed Missouri's minimum wage above the federal standard. The new wage is posted on the website of the state labor department.

Two groups that had been pushing to get initiatives stiffening regulations on payday loans and raising Missouri's minimum wage are giving up their fight to get the measures on the November ballot.

Missouri voters will be asked in November to raise the state's tobacco tax and let St. Louis run its own police department.