Mo. legislators vote to block KC from raising minimum wage

Both houses of the Missouri General Assembly voted Wednesday to overrule Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a bill that would forbid Kansas City and other municipalities from increasing minimum wage over the statewide rate of $7.65 per hour.

The House vote was 114 to 46 for the veto override. The Senate vote later that day was 23 to 9, meaning the bill immediately goes into effect as law.

Wednesday’s vote nullifies efforts made in recent months by Kansas City and St. Louis local governments to independently raise the wage rate within their respective municipalities.

The Kansas City Council voted in July to increase the local minimum wage to $13 an hour by 2020, while an activist group gathered enough signatures on a petition that would place a $15 per hour rate on the local ballot in November. In August, the St. Louis City Board of Aldermen approved an $11 per hour rate.

Read more from the Kansas City Star.