By Steve Wishnia

In a disastrous election that saw the most anti-labor President in recent history returned to the White House and labor champion Sherrod Brown of Ohio unseated from the Senate, several states voted to raise the minimum wage, enable workers to earn paid sick time off, and increase union rights for app-taxi drivers and cannabis workers.

Minimum wage and sick time

The two clearest victories came from states won by the Republicans, who have opposed raising the $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage since 2009.

In Missouri, 58% of voters approved increasing the minimum wage from $12.30 to $15 in 2026, a 440,000-vote margin. Proposition A would also require employers to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked—up to five paid sick days per year for businesses with 15 or fewer employees, seven days for larger employers. The measure, however, does not cover public-sector workers, educational institutions, or most farmworkers. It was supported by the Teamsters, the Missouri AFL-CIO, and the Missouri Nurses Association.

Alaska appeared likely to approve a similar measure. Measure 1, which would raise the state minimum from $11.73 to $15 in July 2027, had 56.5% of the vote as of late afternoon Nov. 6, a 31,000-vote lead with 76% of ballots counted. It has similar earned-sick-leave requirements to the Missouri initiative, and would also bar employers from acting against workers who refuse to attend employer-sponsored meetings regarding religious or political matters.

“Voters have sent a clear message to lawmakers from their own statehouses all the way to Washington that raising wages is a priority,” Rebecca Dixon, head of the National Employment Law Project, said in a statement. “Thanks to the vigorous campaigning of workers and local organizers, hundreds of thousands of people are set to earn a long-past-due raise. With no federal wage increases since 2009, it’s time Congress works just as hard as these workers.”

But in heavily Democratic California, an initiative to increase the minimum to $18 an hour lost by a 51%-49% margin, about 290,000 votes, according to unofficial results posted by the Secretary of State’s office Nov. 14. Proposition 32 would have raised pay at employers with more than 25 workers from the current $17 next year, while those with fewer workers would have had to bring it up from $16 in 2026. The main opponents were agribusiness and restaurant trade associations.

Prop 32 was the first minimum-wage initiative defeated in any state since 1996.

In Nebraska, voters approved a paid-sick-leave measure by a 3-1 margin. Initiative 436 would let workers earn one hour off for every 30 hours they put in, up to seven days for businesses with at least 20 employees and five days those with fewer workers. It does not cover public-sector employees.

Tipped minimum

In Arizona, an initiative to lower the state’s minimum wage for tipped workers lost by a 3-1 margin, more than 1 million votes. The state’s current tipped minimum is $11.35, $3 less than its regular minimum of $14.35. Proposition 138 would have let employers pay 25% less than the regular minimum, or $10.77, as long as workers’ hourly pay plus tips totaled at least $2 over the minimum.

“There is no reason why the boss should get to take credit for the tip that the server earns. It's not fair,” Jim Barton, an attorney for One Fair Wage AZ, told KNXV-TV in Phoenix in April.

But in Massachusetts, Question 5, which would have gradually increased $6.75 tipped minimum until it equaled the regular minimum in 2029, lost by more than 900,000 votes, winning only 36%. Restaurant trade groups spent twice as much as supporters.

Union Rights

In Massachusetts, 54% of voters approved Question 3, which would authorize unions and collective bargaining for “transportation network” drivers, Uber and Lyft. An organization would become the exclusive bargaining representative for all drivers after it collected signatures from at least 25% of “active drivers,” those who have completed more than the median number of rides in the past six months. Any agreement it reaches would have to be approved by the state secretary of labor and a majority of riders who have taken at least 100 trips during the previous quarter. The SEIU and 32BJ SEIU endorsed the initiative.

Oregon voters appear to have approved Measure 119, which would require cannabis retailers and processors to submit a signed labor-peace agreement with a labor organization to obtain or renew a license from the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission. With 73% of ballots counted on Nov. 6, it had 55% of the vote, a 165,000-vote lead.

The agreement guarantees that they will not interfere with union organizing. California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia have similar cannabis-business regulations.

Gov. Tina Kotek, the Oregon AFL-CIO, and Oregon AFSCME all endorsed the initiative, but the main force behind it was United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, which put $2.4 million into the campaign. The state’s 2014 initiative legalizing adult use of cannabis, Local 555 communications coordinator Miles Eshaia told KTVZ-TV in Bend in August, failed to “set up the necessary protections for workers.”

Another reason was to give workers the power to enforce safety standards.

“Regulation is sloppy, and safety violations are rampant, forcing the better employers to compete against the rotten ones that freely cut corners,” Local 555 President Dan Clay said in a statement in July, after handing in petitions to get the initiative on the ballot. “Collectively bargained safety standards allow workers to enforce safety violations as a contractual issue.”

California rent controls lose

Even if California minimum-wage workers had won a raise, they would still face high housing costs. Proposition 33, which would prohibit the state from restricting local rent-control laws—repealing its bans on limiting rent increases in vacant units and on rent controls in buildings constructed since 1995—was defeated by more than 2 million votes, garnering only 38%.

It was endorsed by the California Nurses Association and UNITE HERE Local 11 in Southern California. The main opponents were the California Apartment Association and other landlord trade groups, which raised more than twice as much money as supporters. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners also opposed it.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to include the unofficial final results from California.

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