Despite victories for Donald Trump across the country, several states that went red also chose to raise the minimum wage and ensure paid sick leave for their workers.
In Missouri, where Trump captured 58 percent of the voters, the same number of Missourians voted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $13.75 per hour starting in 2025 and to $15 per hour starting in 2026.
Alaskans also appear to have voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2027 while securing paid sick leave for workers. Fifty-six percent of Alaskans supported the measure as of Wednesday morning, with 76 percent of voters reported. Meanwhile, Trump won the state and Democratic Representative Mary Peltola lost her House seat.
Similarly, in Arizona, where the presidential race has still yet to be called, voters shot down a ballot measure to reduce the wages of tipped employees nearly three to one. In Nebraska, where Trump handily beat Kamala Harris, voters approved a measure to ensure paid sick leave by similar numbers, with 74 percent voting in favor of allowing workers to accrue paid sick time hours at both large and small companies. Nebraska’s union man, independent candidate Dan Osborn, however, did not win. The Senate candidate, who led a strike against Kellogg’s in 2021, lost to Republican incumbent Deb Fischer Tuesday night.
Strangely enough, similar ballot measures in Arizona and Massachusetts had opposite results. While Arizonans voted down the proposal to “pay up to 25% per hour less than the minimum wage” for tipped workers in Proposition 138, Massachusetts voters appear to have voted down their Question 5, which would have increased the minimum wage for tipped workers. This decision means that Massachusetts workers will continue to make a subminimum wage for tipped work, rather than be brought up to the state’s minimum wage of $15 an hour by 2029. At the same time, Massachusetts residents may have voted to give ride-share drivers the right to join a union.
Though most of California’s ballot measures are too early to call, the results as of Wednesday morning are disappointing. Californians voted to essentially keep slavery legal by voting down Proposition 6, which would have amended the state constitution to end involuntary labor for people in prisons and jails. Moreover, the state also most likely will strike down a proposal to increase the minimum wage.
Meanwhile, Harris won over union members with 57 percent of their vote, compared to Trump’s 39 percent, according to the Associated Press, after she picked up endorsements from most major unions this fall.
Though the results for workers are a mixed bag, it’s clear that Americans care deeply about the economy and their material conditions and that populist proposals that better people’s working lives can win, even in red states.
