labor lawAdivision of labor law center

 Missouri state law (Section 290.502.2) requires that the state’s minimum wage must be adjusted every year based on the latest cost of living.

In charge of making that change is the Director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Director Todd Smith said that in August of 2008, the Department predicted an increase of 40 cents for 2009/

“A review of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for July 2008 confirms the Missouri minimum wage rate will increase to $7.05 effective January 1, 2009,” he predicted at the time.

That prediction has become a reality. The Missouri minimum wage, pegged to the cost of living, went up precisely 40 cents on January 1, 2009, increasing from $6.65 to $7.05 an hour. According to the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, last year’s increase was a mere 15 cents per hour. The much higher rise in the cost of living has driven the dramatic increase in the Missouri minimum wage rate.

Those businesses that earn less than a half-million dollars annually (more…)