Effective January 1, 2022, the Missouri minimum wage rate is $11.15 per hour and the Illinois minimum wage rate is $12.00 per hour.
For now, the federal minimum wage rate remains at $7.25 per hour. This has been the same rate since 2009. But proposed legislation at the federal level continues to seek to increase the federal rate.
Advocates for an increase in the federal minimum wage often cite to inflation and increased costs of living since 2009. Opponents, on the other hand, continue to maintain that varying conditions and costs of living across the country make the issue of minimum wages more appropriate for state-by-state determination.
Presently more than half of the states have state minimum wage rates that exceed the federal minimum wage rate. About a dozen states have a state wage rate equal to the federal rate. And a handful have no state minimum wage law at all.
Only time will tell whether any federal minimum wage legislation will have the necessary bi-partisan and presidential support to become law. Currently, that seems unlikely to happen soon, but circumstances can always change. Stay tuned for further developments in this space.
