The passage of Proposition B means the wage will reach $12 per hour in 2023.

The maneuver by Cunningham, however, would set the rate for workers under 18 at 85 percent of the minimum wage. For tipped workers, such as restaurant servers, the wage would be frozen at $4.30 per hour and would not rise as the minimum goes up in each of the next five years.

The pending move drew the ire of Richard von Glahn, policy director for Missouri Jobs with Justice, which backed the referendum.

“Prior to the overwhelming passage of Proposition B, a minimum wage worker working full time earned just $314 a week, nowhere near enough to raise a family,” he said.

“Missouri voters knew that wasn’t enough and voted overwhelmingly to raise the minimum wage for our state’s low-wage workers. It is out of touch for any legislator to work to overturn the will of the voters, and they must go explain to the people in their district how they would live on $314 a week and why the voters were wrong to try to change that.”

Von Glahn said that by his calculations, Cunningham’s home county had 2,231 workers who would benefit from Proposition B, representing 31.4 percent of the county’s workforce.