Four States Vote to Increase the Minimum Wage

Four states—Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota—passed measures to increase the minimum wage. Alaska’s measure will increase the minimum wage to $9.75 in 2016, the Arkansas measure raises the minimum wage to $8.50 by 2017, Nebraska’s will rise to $9 by 2016 and South Dakota’s goes to $8.50.

By a wide margin, Illinois voters also recommended an increase to the minimum wage, but the vote was nonbinding.

In Alaska and South Dakota, the minimum wage could climb higher, with the voter-approved proposals indexed to the rate of inflation

The wage increase won its biggest margin of victory in Alaska, where it garnered 69% of the vote. In Arkansas, it received 65%; in Nebraska, 59% approved raising the minimum wage, while in South Dakota, the margin was 53%. Ballot measures in some states polled so high early on that no major effort was made to defeat the voter-imposed mandates. S