Missouri Minimum Wage 2026: $15.00 an Hour, and No Raise Set for 2027

Missouri’s minimum wage is $15.00 an hour for 2026 [1][2]. That’s the last step in the schedule voters approved in 2024. The law as it reads today doesn’t set any raise after that [2].

What changed in 2025

Proposition A, approved by voters in November 2024, raised the wage to $13.75 in 2025 and $15.00 in 2026 [2]. In 2025 the legislature passed H.B. 567, which amended the same statute [2]. In the version in effect since August 28, 2025, the yearly cost-of-living adjustment covers only years ending December 31, 2024 [2]. Nothing in the current text raises the rate after 2026 [2].

The statute still says the federal minimum wins if it’s ever higher [2].

Tipped workers

Missouri lets employers of tipped workers pay a cash wage of 50% of the minimum wage [4]. In 2026 that’s $7.50 an hour [1][7]. The employer must make up any gap so cash wage plus tips reaches at least $15.00 an hour [1][4].

Who isn’t covered

Missouri’s definition of “employee” leaves out several groups. Among them [3]:

• people working for a retail or service business with annual gross sales under $500,000,
• executive, administrative and professional employees,
• volunteers at charitable, religious or nonprofit groups where there’s no real employment relationship,
• casual babysitters, and people doing occasional work in a private home for six hours or less at a time,
• seasonal workers at youth camps employed less than four months a year,
• casual golf caddies and newspaper carriers,
• commission earners whose hours and workplaces the employer doesn’t substantially control.

Missouri’s labor department notes that an employer covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act generally has to follow both state and federal rules [1]. So a worker at a small business may still be owed the federal minimum.

If you’re paid less than you’re owed

1. File a complaint with the state. The Division of Labor Standards takes minimum wage complaints through an online form, by email at minimumwage@labor.mo.gov, or by phone at 573-751-3403 [5]. It investigates and can figure the back wages owed [5].

The division can’t take your claim to court for you [5]. For that, you sue on your own.

2. Sue your employer. Missouri law lets an underpaid worker recover [6]:

• the unpaid wages,
• an extra amount equal to twice the unpaid wages as liquidated damages ,
• court costs and reasonable attorney fees.

The deadline to sue is three years from when the claim arose [6].

Other states

Comparing Missouri with its neighbors? See the minimum wage in every state on BestAmerica.