Minimum Wages Get a Hike in Midterm Votes

Voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota chose to increase their states’ minimum wages Tuesday, while those in San Francisco opted to start paying workers $15 per hour, matching the national high.

In Alaska, an overwhelming 68% of voters endorsed a minimum wage increase to $9.75 by 2016. In Arkansas, 65% of voters said “yes” to bumping the current minimum of $6.25 (many businesses still had to pay the federal minimum of $7.25) to $8.50 by 2017. Voters were almost as enthusiastic in Nebraska, with 59% approving a bump from $7.25 to $9 by 2016.

The vote was closer in South Dakota, with 55% of voters supporting a hike from $7.25 to $8.50 an hour by 2015.

See Where America Votes

Salvador Ponce, 73, leaves after casting his ballot at a polling place set up in the playground of a McDonald's restaurant in Los Angeles on Nov. 4, 2014.

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People vote at the polling place in Krishna Temple in Salt Lake City on Nov. 4, 2014.

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A woman votes at a polling station inside a local grocery store in National City, Calif. on Nov. 4, 2014.

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A voter works on his ballot at First Class Barber Shop in Chicago on Nov. 4, 2014.

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Sandy Anderson votes at Oakton Ice Arena in Park Ridge, Ill. on Nov. 4, 2014.

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Voter Larry Levatte casts his ballot inside the old Hoggards Mill Courthouse of Baker County in Newton, Ga. on Nov. 4, 2014.

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Deborah Brown, 60, emerges from the voting booth after casting her ballot at the West Philadelphia YMCA in Philadelphia on Nov. 4, 2014.

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A voter leaves his booth as election workers GayLee Erickson, left, and Debbie Redmond, second from left, confer at the Valley Bible Chalet, in Indian, Alaska on Nov. 4, 2014.

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Poll worker Maria Soroka finishes setting up a polling station in a garage before polls open in San Diego on Nov. 4, 2014.

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A voter casts her ballot at a fire station in Climax, N.C. on Nov. 4, 2014.

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A voter looks over her ballot for the U.S. midterm elections at a laundromat used as a polling station in Chicago on Nov. 4, 2014.

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A woman fills out her ballot at a polling place at a swimming pool in Los Angeles on Nov. 4, 2014.

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Voters fill out their ballots in a gym on election day at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church in Albany, N.Y. on Nov. 4.

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Voters fill in their ballots at a polling place located in Shoaf's Wagon Wheel in Salisbury, N.C. on Nov. 4, 2014.

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Residents cast their votes at a polling place in Ferguson, Mo. on Nov. 4, 2014.

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A voter drops her election ballot at one of many ballot drop boxes in the Arvada suburb of Denver on Nov. 4, 2014.

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A voter enters the voting booth at Bishop Leo E. O'Neil Youth Center in Manchester, N.H. on Nov. 4, 2014.

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A voter leaves the Valley Bible Chalet polling location in Indian, Alaska on Nov. 4, 2014.

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The raises happened despite big losses for Democrats in all those states. Late Tuesday just a single Democratic candidate was poised to win a federal election among them, even though the party made the issue a key political priority. Such a strong consensus for raising the minimum wage shows bipartisan support for an issue that has been contentious in Washington, where Obama and many congressional Democrats have backed raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016.

Republicans say that while raising the minimum wage would push many workers above the poverty line, it would likely cost many others their jobs. A Congressional Budget Office report found that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 could result in job losses of 500,000, while leading to higher incomes for an estimated 16.5 million workers.

The increase in San Francisco will be phased in over time, reaching $15 by 2018. Early voting counts showed more than 76% of voters opting to match Seattle for offering the highest minimum wage in the nation (though Seattle has been taken to court over its ordinance).

In Illinois, 66% of voters supported a non-binding resolution to raise the minimum wage to $10 by 2015. And on the East Coast, Massachusetts voters made their state the third in the nation to require paid sick leave for workers, after Connecticut and California.

Write to Katy Steinmetz at katy.steinmetz@time.com.