Higher Wages and Paid Sick Leave

Voters in Alaska, Missouri, and Nebraska, all states won by Trump, voted to require that employers provide paid sick leave.

Nebraska’s Amendment 436, which allows workers to earn one hour of paid sick leave for every thirty hours worked, passed with a resounding 75 percent of the vote. This is significant progress for a state where activists estimate there are 250,000 full-time workers without any paid sick days. The initiative was backed by a coalition that included the Nebraska American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Planned Parenthood, and the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA).

In Missouri, Proposition A, which includes the same paid sick leave formula as the Nebraska initiative, passed with 57 percent support. It also increases the minimum wage immediately to $13.75 per hour and then $15 per hour in 2026. The Kansas City Star reported that the measure even carried the majority in counties that went heavily for Trump and the Republicans. Unsurprisingly, the passage of Proposition A has left the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry sour and determined to mount a legal or legislative challenge.

In Alaska, a state Trump won with 54.5 percent of the vote, voters endorsed sweeping pro-worker reforms by passing Ballot Measure One. Workers will now be granted up to seven sick days a year, a minimum wage of $15 an hour by 2027, and a ban on captive audience meetings that are used to squash unionization efforts. Though the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently banned captive audience meetings, it is unlikely to hold up under a Trump-appointed NLRB. Other states may have to follow in the steps of Alaska and get this enshrined at the state level until more favorable national conditions emerge.

In a win for tipped workers, over 75 percent of Arizona voters rejected Proposition 138, which would have lowered the tipped worker minimum wage.

Congress has been out to lunch on issues like these, which are critical to low-income workers who are mostly without union protection. The federal minimum wage has been stuck at a measly $7.25 per hour since 2009 and paid sick leave arrangements have been left up to the discretion of individual employers. This cycle, voters demonstrated that even in seemingly conservative-leaning areas, majorities of working people support meaningful improvements on these fronts.

Voters Reject School Privatization

Ballot initiatives are not just opportunities for progressives; our opponents see their utility as well. This year, school privatizers looking to divert public funds toward private schools went on the offensive in many states. But for the most part, voters reaffirmed their commitment to the idea of public education.

The conservative nonprofit Advance Colorado Action was the main driver behind Amendment 80, which would have enshrined the right to “school choice” in Colorado’s state constitution. While the phrase sounds innocent enough, public school advocates recognized this as a sneaky ploy to advance statewide privatization.

Kevin Vick, president of the Colorado Education Association, described Amendment 80 as “a backdoor way of bringing private school vouchers into Colorado.” In addition to the major teachers’ unions, the coalition to oppose Amendment 80 included the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Colorado Parent Teachers Association, and Christian Home Educators of Colorado. The measure was narrowly defeated, with 50.7 percent voting against it.

In Kentucky, the school privatizers were more decisively defeated. Amendment 2 proposed a change to the state constitution to allow spending tax dollars on charter schools and vouchers outside the public school system. US senator Rand Paul and other top GOP officials backed the measure. The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy estimated that the amendment would cost the state $1.19 billion, the equivalent of hiring almost ten thousand public school employees.

Kentucky voters massively rejected the idea, with 65 percent registering opposition against it. Interestingly, Trump won the state with the same percentage of the vote. It didn’t just flop overall — it failed in every single county. “The people of Kentucky proved they are free thinkers,” said the Scott County school district superintendent of the result. “They knew it wasn’t a partisan issue but that it affected all of Kentucky’s children.”

Fayette County Public Schools board chairman Tyler Murphy explained to the local news what public schools really mean to citizens. “The public schools do more than just educate,” he said. “They bring communities together, they support families, and, in some communities, they are the largest employer.”

Nebraska voters also displayed their progressive inclinations on this issue. Measure 435 asked voters about repealing LB1402, which created a private voucher program for low-income families. The vote to repeal won with 57 percent of the vote. Support Our Schools Nebraska president Jenni Benson told Nebraska Public Media that these results represented a belief that “public dollars belong in public schools with public accountability, and that we do not want private school vouchers in Nebraska.”

Empowering Workers to Organize

We often hear that labor unions are more popular than they have been in generations, with roughly 70 percent of Americans holding a favorable view. But with union density still stagnant at around 10 percent, it’s unclear how this positive sentiment can translate into concrete advances for the labor movement. Here again, ballot initiatives in 2024 provided some encouraging signs.

In Denver, Colorado, around seven thousand municipal workers, including librarians, social workers, and sanitation workers, did not have collective bargaining rights even though they could be in a union. But now, thanks to the passage of Proposition 2U with 64 percent support, these workers will have this right that is so fundamental to union membership. The coalition in favor of Proposition 2U included the Colorado AFL-CIO and organizations like Denver Democratic Socialists of America and Colorado Working Families Party.

In Oregon, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) pushed a campaign to protect the right of cannabis workers to organize a union. Measure 119, which passed with 56 percent of the vote, will require employers to sign a labor peace agreement in order to get a license to operate in the state. These agreements make it clear that employers cannot interfere if workers decide to organize.

The Taxpayers Association of Oregon opposed the measure, using the well-worn argument that unions will “cause labor costs to spike and hurt a fragile industry.” They went further and suggested that a unionized cannabis industry would end up “giving more power to illegal street drug dealers.” Clearly, voters did not agree.

Perhaps the most interesting ballot measure relating to worker organizing was passed in Massachusetts. Question 3 provides a pathway for rideshare drivers at companies like Uber and Lyft to organize. If 5 percent of “active drivers” (people who completed one hundred or more trips in the past quarter) support a union, a state-level Employment Relations Board would allow these drivers to get a list of drivers for the company. If 25 percent of active drivers give support, then a union can become their bargaining representative.

Question 3, which was mainly pushed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is somewhat uncharted territory for the labor movement. With rideshare drivers misclassified as independent contractors, no union has yet been able to crack the code of how to effectively organize these workers. While it’s unclear how successful this model will be, Question 3 has carved out important space for experimentation that should be closely followed.

The Fights We Want

The results of these state-level ballot measures should be encouraging to those of us that prioritize the fight for economic justice. Our political weakness did not happen overnight, and conducting ballot measures is not a magic bullet that can solve all our problems. Nevertheless, the Left should add these kinds of campaigns to the toolbox.

Ultimately, if we’re going to win over the many working-class voters who are disaffected or have moved to the right, we’ll need to find ways to engage with them on economic issues that affect their lives and challenge corporate power. While elections provide opportunities for doing so, the identification with specific candidates and parties complicates and distracts from getting the fundamental message across. Elections often become shallow personality contests, while ballot measures remain laser-focused on the issues at hand.

Ballot initiatives also provide the kinds of organizing opportunities the Left should be looking for. As seen in 2024 and past years, often these campaigns involve broad coalitions that include labor unions and community organizations from across the state. This kind of networking and relationship-building is invaluable and can help bridge urban-rural divides.

In California, for example, voters passed Proposition 4, which provides a $10 billion bond that goes toward protecting water quality and other environmental goals. The coalition of endorsers featured a diverse range of groups like the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, the Nature Conservancy, and the Save the Redwoods League.

Campaigns like these can help people develop all kinds of important organizing skills like writing op-eds, cultivating local media contacts, door-knocking, phone-banking, and more. While these same sets of skills are utilized for elections, we need more practice making our case for issues and policies rather than candidates.

Finally, ballot measures set up clear battle lines with the local corporate elite. It’s an opportunity to name the enemy and engage regular people in a direct challenge against them. In Massachusetts in 2022, unions came together and passed a tax on millionaire wealth to fund public education, transportation, and infrastructure repair. Such fights draw into battle groups like the Chamber of Commerce and employers’ associations.

There’s a lot to be depressed about after the election. But when one looks past the culture wars and the media circus, one thing emerges clearly: when higher wages, well-funded public services, and workers’ rights were on the ballot, voters said yes.