Minimum wage hikes pass

Forbes - More than two-thirds of voters in Alaska agreed to raise minimum wage to $9.75 by 2016. Sixty-five percent of Arkansas voters set the state on course to adopt an $8.50 figure by 2017. In Nebraska, 59 percent said the number should be $9 an hour by 2016. Only South Dakota stood out with a slimmer margin; 53 percent voted to raise minimum wage to $8.50 an hour next year. In Alaska and South Dakota, minimum wage is now pegged to inflation, meaning that it will rise as the cost of living does.

Those weren’t the only votes on the topic. San Francisco, one of the most expensive American cities to live in, increased its local minimum wage to $15 an hour. In Illinois, 62 percent voted for a non-binding referendum to increase minimum wage to $10 an hour by next year. On a related topic, Massachusetts voters passed mandatory paid sick leave. California and Connecticut were the first two states to require the benefit.