Missouri Minimum Wage 2026: $15.00, With No 2027 Increase Scheduled

Missouri's minimum wage is $15.00 an hour, effective January 1, 2026, and no increase is scheduled for 2027. Proposition A (2024) would have indexed the rate to inflation from 2027, but the legislature removed that clause in 2025, so the statute now fixes $15.00 unless the federal minimum rises above it. Tipped employees can be paid $7.50 in cash wages if tips bring them to $15.00, and cities and counties can't set a higher rate.

Missouri at a glance

How Missouri sets its minimum wage

The rate is in RSMo 290.502. The statute provided for annual cost-of-living adjustments through 2024; the last one took the rate from $12.00 in 2023 to $12.30 in 2024 (department rate history). Proposition A, approved by voters in November 2024, replaced that with $13.75 on January 1, 2025 and $15.00 on January 1, 2026, and would have restarted annual inflation adjustments after that.

In 2025 the legislature passed HB 567. The current section 290.502, effective August 28, 2025, keeps the $13.75 and $15.00 steps but ends the cost-of-living adjustments with 2024 and contains no adjustment after 2026. If the federal minimum wage ever rose above $15.00, the higher federal rate would apply immediately. The same bill made the section's minimum wage rate apply to public employers from August 28, 2025.

Is there a 2027 increase?

Not under current law. The Missouri minimum wage in 2027 will stay at $15.00 unless the legislature changes the statute, voters pass a new measure, or the federal rate goes up. The Secretary of State's list of measures certified for the November 3, 2026 ballot includes no minimum wage or sick leave measure. Because the department no longer calculates an annual adjustment, there is no autumn announcement to wait for.

Tipped employees

Under RSMo 290.512, an employer of employees who receive and keep tips doesn't have to pay wages above 50% of the minimum wage, but total pay must reach the full minimum, with the employer making up any difference. That puts the Missouri tipped cash wage at $7.50 an hour in 2026, which the department confirms.

No local minimum wages

RSMo 290.528 bars any city, county or other political subdivision from requiring a minimum or living wage above state law and nullifies ordinances that did. St. Louis and Kansas City employers pay the same $15.00 as the rest of the state.

Exceptions

• Small retail and service businesses. Employees of a retail or service business with annual gross sales under $500,000 aren't covered by the state law (RSMo 290.500). The department warns that such employers may still be covered by the federal FLSA, which requires at least $7.25.
• Other exclusions. The state definition of "employee" also excludes bona fide executive, administrative and professional employees, casual babysitters, some camp and educational workers, and several other groups listed in RSMo 290.500.
• Goods and services. Employers can credit the fair market value of certain goods or services an employee receives against the minimum wage, under department rules (RSMo 290.512).

What this means for hiring

Missouri employers absorbed two large steps in two years: $12.30 in 2024 to $13.75 in 2025, then $15.00 in 2026. With no increase scheduled, 2027 is the first year in a while when the floor won't reset your pay ranges, so what you advertise is a market decision rather than a compliance one. To see what a Missouri hire costs at the wage you actually pay, including taxes, use our employee cost calculator. For breaks, overtime, final pay and hiring rules, see Missouri labor laws. Our minimum wage by state page compares other states; if you hire on both sides of the river, see Illinois, where the statewide rate is also $15.00 but Chicago and Cook County run higher.

For setting the number itself, our guide to how much to pay hourly employees walks through market data, and job ad copywriting shows how to put the rate in the first line. Missouri doesn't require pay ranges in postings; if you hire in other states too, check pay transparency laws by state.

Frequently asked questions

Part of Boostpoint’s minimum wage by state series.