Minimum wage ballot measures in Arizona, California, Alaska, Missouri

This November, voters in at the least three states will determine whether or not to lift their federal minimum wage.

If history is any guide, the ballot measures in Alaska, Missouri and California are prone to pass and end in larger paychecks for employees, said Sebastian Martinez Hickey, a state economic analyst on the Economic Policy Institute.

“Since 2014, 12 states have passed minimum wage increases through ballot measures,” Martinez Hickey told CNBC.

In many states, he added, “a statewide ballot initiative is the only plausible path because conservative lawmakers have failed to raise wages.”

Meanwhile, voters in Arizona will choose a ballot measure that might lower the minimum wage for tipped employees.

Here's what's at stake in next month's election for employees who earn the minimum wage and the employers who pay them.

Alaska voters will determine whether to lift the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2027, with adjustments tied to inflation thereafter. Ballot Measure #1 would increase the minimum wage to $13 in 2025 and $14 in 2026.

The current lowest possible hourly wage in Alaska is $11.73Therefore, the rise can be significant for those on the lower end of the income scale. It would even be far-reaching. If approved, the rise would boost the income of about 30,800 Alaska residents, in keeping with EPI Estimates.

If the measure is adopted, employees would even have the chance to receive subsidies 40 hours or 56 hours of paid sick leavedepending on the scale of the corporate they work for.

“Raising the minimum wage and requiring paid sick leave helps both workers and small businesses by incentivizing workers to stay in a job where they receive secure benefits and a respectable salary,” said Joelle Hall, president of the Alaska AFL-CIO.

Hall added that the measure would allow parents to “better pay for their families’ basic needs, such as health care and food.”

Kati Capozzi, CEO of Alaska Chambersaid business opposed the measure.

“Given Alaska’s highly seasonal economy, this will have devastating consequences for our small businesses struggling to make ends meet after years of rising prices and limited labor,” Capozzi said.

Proposal A In Missouri, if approved, the minimum wage would step by step increase to $13.75 an hour starting Jan. 1, 2025, up from the present lowest wage of $12.30. The minimum wage is anticipated to succeed in $15 by 2026. After that, increases can be based on inflation.

If the measure is adopted, all employers would even be obliged to make their employees available one hour of paid sick leave for each 30 hours worked.

Richard von Glahn, campaign manager for Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, said the ballot measure is “critically important.”

“Currently, a full-time minimum wage worker in Missouri earns less than $500 per week, and one in three Missouri workers does not have access to paid sick time.”

“This is forcing people to choose between their health and their bills, and no one should have to make that choice,” he told CNBC.

In California, Proposal 32 would increase the minimum wage from $16 to $18. The schedule for this increase would vary depending on employer size, so corporations with 25 or fewer employees would should pay this amount by 2026. If the measure is successful, larger employers can be required to extend wages to $18 in 2025 and $17 for the rest of 2024.

Such a change would also likely drive up wages for non-minimum wage employees, an estimate noted by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office in California.

LAO expects corporations to pass on their additional labor costs to customers, but estimates overall cost increases can be modest at lower than half of 1%.

The Golden State has considered one of the very best costs of living within the United States. A single adult in California would want to make a living to cover basic expenses $27.32 per hourin keeping with one evaluation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Massachusetts and Arizona have ballot measures this fall on minimum wages for tipped employees.

Restaurants and other businesses with tipped employees are sometimes capable of pay a lower hourly wage than their state's minimum wage, assuming that the ideas will make up the difference. However, low-wage employees and labor advocates say this practice is commonly abused, leaving employees in a precarious and worse-off situation.

In theory, employers are required by law to be sure that employees' suggestions are at the least equal to the regular minimum wage for the hours they worked in a given week, said Martinez Hickey of the Economic Policy Institute.

But in practice, he said, “this is extremely difficult to enforce because it often requires workers themselves to know the law, calculate the difference between their own wages and the legal minimum wage, and confront their employer.”

Question 5 In Massachusetts, the $6.75 hourly minimum wage can be slowly phased out until it will definitely reaches the state's standard minimum wage by 2029. The current minimum wage within the state is $15 per hour.

In the Grand Canyon State, Proposal 138 would allow corporations to pay tipped employees 25% lower than the minimum wage if their total wages plus suggestions over all work hours are $2 above the flat minimum wage. Effective immediately, tipped employees can receive roughly 21% lower than the present minimum wage of $14.35, provided other requirements are met.

“This is a step backwards for Arizona,” said Geraldine Miranda, an economic policy analyst on the Arizona Center for Economic Progress. Miranda estimates that the typical tipped employee would lose about $1,400 per yr if the ballot measure passes.

Steve Chucri, president and CEO of the Arizona Restaurant Association, helped put the measure on the ballot. He said it “preserves a restaurant and hospitality industry that is critical to Arizona’s economy.”

Proposition 138 “is our best defense against union activists who have made clear their plans to impose a California-style wage system on Arizona employers,” Chucri said.