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Much of the nation’s attention this week is likely focused on the results of Tuesday’s presidential, congressional and gubernatorial elections — whose HR implications are vast — but labor issues have also come up in statewide elections, creating an even more complex work environment for employers.

Voters in at least a dozen states considered perennial issues like marijuana legalization and minimum wage hikes as well as more timely concerns like reproductive rights and labor unionization. Below, HR Dive has provided a recap of those contests, all but one of which had been completed as of press time.

Voters overwhelmingly approve raising minimum wage, reject wage reforms

After 2022 mid-term elections continued the trend of state and local governments raising minimum wage rates, with several states putting the issue on the ballot this year.

Voters in Alaska and Missouri have green-lighted such increases. Alaska’s minimum wage will rise to $15 an hour by July 1, 2027, while Missouri’s will gradually increase to $13.75 an hour by next year before reaching $15 an hour by 2026. The two states were already among the 30 states which had minimum wages above the federal minimum according to the US Department of Labor.

Both the Alaska and Missouri initiatives included additional clauses creating the opportunity for local workers to earn paid sick leave. The proposals have maximum accrual and utilization that varies by employer size.

These requirements are the same for both states. Employers will be required to grant one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, but itEmployees at employers with fewer than 15 employees can only accrue or use up to 40 hours of leave per year, while those at employers with 15 or more employees are capped at 56 hours per year.

Nebraska voters also joined the paid sick leave trend. Under the state-approved ballot initiative, workers at employers with fewer than 20 employees can accrue and use up to 40 hours of leave per year, while those at employers with 20 or more employees can accrue and use up to 56 hours per year. Leave is accrued at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked.

In California, voters had a chance to decide whether to raise the state’s minimum wage to $18 an hour, a proposal that had become a point of contention between local employers and lawyers in recent years. Following this observation, the Associated Press deemed the result too close to call at press time, according to CalMatters, with “no” votes on the rise, holding a slim lead.

Voters in other states have rejected ballot initiatives that would change the rates at which tipped workers are paid. That was the case in Arizona, where voters blocked an effort to raise wages for tipped workers under certain conditions, and in Massachusetts, where an effort to eliminate the minimum wage for tipped workers by 2029 — and replace it with the minimum state standard. — fell short.

Washington state voters rejected a proposal that would have allowed employees and the self-employed to opt out of paying state payroll tax as well as receive benefits from the WA Care Fund, a long-term care insurance program run by the state.

Alaska, New York update anti-discrimination statutes

The same Alaska ballot initiative that approved an increase in the state’s minimum wage and the creation of a paid sick leave guarantee contained a third component: it prohibited employers from taking adverse action against employees who refuse to attend employer-sponsored meetings on political or religious. it matters.

According to the initiative, “political issues” include elections for political office, political parties, candidates, proposed legislation or regulations, and the decision to join or not support a political party or a political, civic, communal, fraternal or labor organization. . “Religious matters” include those relating to religious affiliation and practice and the decision to join or support a religious organization or association.

New York state voters approved an amendment to the state’s bill of rights that prohibits discrimination on a variety of grounds — including “pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive health care and autonomy,” a noteworthy addition given the national debate over reproductive health rights after Removal by the US Supreme Court of Roe v. Wade.