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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missourians from all political ideologies and backgrounds voted today to protect working parents and their families. Voters successfully passed Proposition A, which guarantees a gradual raise of the minimum wage to $15 an hour and the right for workers to earn one hour of paid sick time per 30 hours of work to help care for themselves and their families. The Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages campaign, backed by the Fairness Project, won its “Yes on Prop A” effort Tuesday night. Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages declared victory at 11:54 ET. The “Yes” votes were leading 59% to 40% with 83% of votes counted. 

“What we’ve seen tonight in Missouri is a victory for common sense solutions that reward hard work over ideological callousness. When voters have a say, they vote for fair wages and paid sick leave for working families,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which backed Missouri’s Proposition A. “We’re very proud to have worked with advocates on the ground to ensure that Missouri’s working parents no longer have to struggle so hard to feed their families on a full-time salary.” 

With the passage of Proposition A, parents will no longer have to choose between losing pay, going to work sick, or sending children to school while sick. The wage increase will help an estimated 137,000 parents and 338,000 children in the state of Missouri to access basic necessities like food, housing, and medical care.  

Hall further emphasized the importance of ballot measures in bringing about positive change for voters. “Ballot measures like Prop A allow the voters to express their will and use the democratic process as it’s meant to be used,” Hall explained. “Missourians deserved a raise, and through this ballot measure, they didn’t have to wait out broken promises and endless gridlock in government to get one.”

Richard von Glahn, Campaign Manager of Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, says this result will make a real difference in the lives of families. “This measure means healthier families and better outcomes for our children. It’s the difference between being able to afford to put food on the table for your family, or going hungry,” von Glahn announced. “We are so grateful for the resources and strategy provided by our partners at the Fairness Project, without whom we would not have been able to deliver this near-immediate assistance to hundreds of thousands of deserving people in our state.”

In recent years, the Fairness Project has helped pass Missouri ballot measures to stand up for working people when politicians failed to do so. In 2020, the organization worked with a broad grassroots coalition to pass Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment that expanded Medicaid to 275,000 low-income Missourians. In 2018, the Fairness Project worked with local partners to pass a ballot measure to raise the state minimum wage.

 Having already carried more than 30 progressive ballot measures to victory, the overwhelming majority of which were in conservative and right-leaning states, the Fairness Project is now widely considered the nation’s ballot measure leader. Thanks to its unique strategy in reaching Republican, independent, and undecided voters, the organization is continuing its electoral success in the 2024 campaign.

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