Red, blue, and green: US voters elected minimum wage increases

Voters turned out for Trump and progressive policies like minimum wage hikes.

In 2024, voters elected a Republican president while embracing policies touted by Democrats.

Minimum wage hikes, in particular, were victorious in states that went soundly for President-elect Donald Trump.

In Missouri, Trump raked in just over 58% of the vote. The same share of the state’s voters opted to hike the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026 and mandate some paid sick leave. A slim majority also voted to enshrine abortion rights.

In Alaska, where Trump seems poised to trounce Kamala Harris, a measure to hike the minimum wage to $15 by 2027 and mandate paid sick leave also looks like it’s on track to win.

In Arizona, a measure to allow employers to reduce base pay for tipped workers did not pass, and voters similarly voted to enshrine abortion rights.

It’s happened before: In 2020, Florida voters wholeheartedly embraced Trump — and voted to hike the minimum wage to $15 by 2026.

It’s further proof that this election really was all about the economy.

“People are right now still feeling the effects of high inflation,” Yannet Lathrop, a senior researcher and policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project, said, adding, “When they have before them an opportunity to raise the wage of themselves or their family members or friends, they are going to choose to do that because they still are feeling the effects of high inflation. “

David Cooper, the director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, told B-17 there’s been a “real sea change” in people’s understanding of the impact of hikes. Both he and Lathrop have observed a move away from the belief that higher minimum wages would lead to fewer jobs and toward research showing that pay hikes mean higher pay with minimal job loss.

“Raising the minimum wage almost always has bipartisan support except among elected Republican officials. So there is a disconnect between what elected Republicans want to do around minimum wage policy and what their voters overwhelming — at least by and large — tend to want them to do,” Cooper said.

When Democrats brought a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $15 in 2021, it received zero GOP support, with 8 moderate Democrats also voting the measure down.

Trump has signaled he’d be open to a minimum wage hike. Vice President-elect JD Vance cosponsored a GOP bill to raise the federal minimum to $11 an hour, but it never made it to a vote.

Georgetown University Professor Jason Brennan told B-17 that it isn’t strange many Americans who vote Republican also vote for a higher minimum wage.

Brennan said that most partisan voters don’t actually have a strong sense of policies they favor; they favor a party rather than its ideology. Swing voters tend to vote for both right-wing and left-wing ideologies. In a high-price environment, that can lead to a voter opting for both Trump and higher pay.

“They’re looking at the fact that things are expensive, and they’re just trying to think of what policies they think might address that,” Brennan said.

After all, getting paid more matters to Americans across the political spectrum.

“My takeaway would be regardless of what party you are, if you are not speaking to people’s pay and job conditions and not supporting measures that will clearly improve job quality for people, then you’re missing an opportunity to generate support,” Cooper said.