ST. LOUIS – Missouri’s minimum wage will increase by 85 cents per hour at the start of the 2023 year.
Starting Jan. 1, the state’s new minimum wage will be $12 per hour for employees who work in private businesses. The 2022 minimum wage for such employees in Missouri was $11.15.
Missouri has raised its minimum wage gradually each of the last seven years, according to the Missouri Department of Labor. Recent increases are part of a plan approved by voters in 2018 to raise the minimum wage every year through 2023.
The state’s minimum wage law does not apply to public employers, nor does it allow the state’s minimum wage rate to be lower than the federal minimum wage rate. This means that the minimum wage increase may not apply to workers in retail and service businesses.
According to the department of labor, “employers engaged in retail or service businesses whose annual gross income is less than $500,000 are not required to pay the state minimum wage rate.”
Employees who work for tips, like restaurant servers, must be guaranteed at least half of the minimum wage per hour, per state law.