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Missouri's minimum wage hits $15 on Jan. 1

Missouri's minimum wage jumps to $15 on Jan. 1, boosting pay for hundreds of thousands of workers statewide.

Missouri workers will start 2026 with a pay bump when the state&#x27;s <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="minimum wage" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2025/07/01/minimum-wage-san-francisco-los-angeles" data-vars-content-id="251ffdae-5a40-44b7-a56c-0ca6c319f4fc" data-vars-headline="Missouri&#x27;s minimum wage hits $15 on Jan. 1" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2025/07/01/minimum-wage-san-francisco-los-angeles" target="_self">minimum wage</a> reaches $15 on Jan. 1.Why it matters: The increase boosts pay not only for minimum wage workers but also for employees slightly above the floor as businesses adjust their wage ladders.

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Women are landing just a quarter of the country's booming AI jobs, the same share they hold of KC's entire tech workforce.

Why it matters: AI jobs are some of the fastest-growing and highest-paying in the country, and when they arrive in KC, they'll be filled from a local tech workforce where the gender gap is baked in.

By the numbers: Men landed 74%, and women 26%, of new U.S. hires for AI roles in 2025, per LinkedIn data. The higher the pay, the wider the gap.

82% of new hires to "member of technical staff" roles, common in AI labs, went to men. Median listed pay this year is $223,000.

The data annotator job, with median pay of $51,000, is roughly split 50/50 between men and women.

Zoom in: KC's tech workforce starts from that same place. Women make up 26% of the metro's nearly 75,000 tech workers while accounting for 49% of the overall workforce, per the KC Tech Council's latest Tech Specs report, which draws on CompTIA and JobsEQ data.

Whether AI hiring here follows the national pattern is unknown. No public data breaks out the metro's AI hiring by gender, and the report doesn't separate AI roles from the rest of tech.

Zoom out: Women aren't just missing the new jobs. They're likelier to hold the ones AI automates: occupations dominated by women are almost twice as exposed to generative AI as male-dominated ones, per the International Labour Organization.

In KC, more than 40,000 workers in customer service and white-collar roles are exposed to AI automation, The Beacon reported last October.

State of play: KC's AI economy is still young. The metro ranked No. 53 nationally in AI adoption as of July 2025, per a Brookings Institution analysis cited in the report, which called the city a "nascent adopter."

What they're saying: "Women may be included in the AI economy, but not in the roles most likely to drive long-term economic mobility, leadership, and decision-making power," LinkedIn's Sarah Steinberg said in an email to Axios.

What we're watching: Whether the pipeline changes the math. The Tech Council runs LEGiT KC, a career mentoring program for girls interested in tech.

The bottom line: Women have long been underrepresented in tech. The AI boom is widening that divide nationally, and KC enters it already behind.

per the International Labour Organization

KC's tech gender gap could grow with AI

AI is creating the economy's best-paying jobs. Women hold just 26% of KC tech jobs, and the gap could grow.

Illustration of a giant robot hand holding a tiny woman with a briefcase

Women are landing just a quarter of the country&#x27;s booming AI jobs, the same share they hold of KC&#x27;s entire tech workforce.Why it matters: AI jobs are some of the fastest-growing and highest-paying in the country, and when they arrive in KC, they&#x27;ll be filled from a local tech workforce where the gender gap is baked in.

The housing market's fragile place

National

Software stocks make a comeback

A line chart that tracks the State Street SPDR S&P Software & Services ETFâs daily price from Aug. 27, 2025, to Aug. 27, 2026. It starts at $188.94, falls to a low of $135.97 on April 10, 2026, then rebounds to a high of $210.31 at the end.

State Street Software & Services ETF  price

Data: Financial Modeling Prep; Chart: Emily Peck/Axios

The top-growing jobs in the country

A bar chart showing the occupations projected to add the most jobs between 2025 and 2035. The top growing occupation is home health care aides, which is projected to add 847.3k jobs. It's followed by stockers and order fillers (+250.7k), fast food counter workers (+233.3k) and registered nurses (+194.7k)

Occupations projected to add the most jobs between 2025 and 2035

Data: BLS; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals

Why Big Tech's AI spending is bigger than you think

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Emily Peck

Featured stories

The housing market's fragile place

Software stocks make a comeback

The top-growing jobs in the country

KC's tech gender gap could grow with AI

Why Big Tech's AI spending is bigger than you think