Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/missouri-debates-increasing-minimum-wage-on-november-ballot-initiative Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript A referendum to raise the state minimum wage by 25 percent from $5.15 an hour to $6.50 an hour will be on the Missouri ballot at the upcoming midterm election. NewsHour correspondent Paul Solman explains the ballot issue. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. PAUL SOLMAN, NewsHour Economics Correspondent: St. Louis, Missouri, home of the gateway to the West, the pennant-contending Cardinals, the famed art museum. But we were here for political purposes. PROPOSITION B CAMPAIGNER: That's Proposition B, which is going to be on the ballot November 7th. PAUL SOLMAN: A ballot measure to raise the minimum wage for all Missouri workers by more than 25 percent — from $5.15 to $6.50 an hour — and keep raising it in lock-step with inflation. PROPOSITION B CAMPAIGNER: We're just coming around asking all registered voters to please come out and vote "yes" on Proposition B. MISSOURI RESIDENT: I sure will be there. PAUL SOLMAN: Campaign spokeswoman Sara Howard points out that Congress hasn't raised the federal minimum wage since 1997.SARA HOWARD, "Give Missourians a Raise" Coalition: The fact is that no one can survive on $5.15 an hour. It's been almost 10 years since the minimum wage was raised in this state, and in that time the cost of everything else has increased every single year. PAUL SOLMAN: Twenty-two other states have already raised the minimum wage above $5.15: California and New York are at $6.75; Oregon at $7.50. And the proposal of $6.50, linked to inflation, seems to have struck a chord in Missouri.A St. Louis Post-Dispatch poll says the measure is getting 68 percent support, and even the conservative Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Louis has endorsed it. And at one of St. Louis' oldest Italian restaurants, Giuseppe's, where we went for lunch, the kitchen staff were all for it.And you? GIUSEPPE’S EMPLOYEE: Yes. GIUSEPPE’S EMPLOYEE: I'm for it. GIUSEPPE’S EMPLOYEE: I'm going to vote for more money.