Minimum Wage May Rise to $11 in Arkansas

Mississippi and the other four states highlighted in blue are the only states without their own minimum wage, and they follow the federal amount of $7.25 per hour. Click the map to see how other states’ minimum wages compare to Mississippi. (U.S. Department of Labor)

Mississippi Follows Federal Minimum Wage of $7.25

By Josh Mitchell

Corinth Today News Editor

The neighboring state of Arkansas already has a higher minimum wage than the federal amount, and it could even go higher.

The current minimum wage in Arkansas is $8.50 an hour for employers with four or more workers.

Mississippi, which does not have a state minimum wage, follows the federal amount of $7.25 per hour.

A petition is currently being circulated in Arkansas to raise the minimum wage to $11 an hour by 2021.

The question will be put on the November ballot for voters to decide if enough signatures are gathered.

The Arkansas Secretary of State’s Office on Monday granted advocates another 30 days to gather the needed signatures.

The petition drive needs 67,887 signatures, and on Monday there were “no more than 52,124 valid signatures,” the secretary of state’s office said in a letter.

The deadline to obtain the additional signatures is Aug. 29.

Mississippi’s other neighboring states— Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee— also do not have a state minimum and simply follow the federal minimum wage. South Carolina is the only other state that does not have a state minimum wage.

Only two states— Georgia and Wyoming— have a lower minimum wage than the federal level. The minimum wage in those two states is $5.15, but the federal amount applies.

Click here to see an interactive U.S. Department of Labor map on minimum wages throughout the nation.