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Election Day 2013: six of the most riveting votes

In the off-year elections Nov. 5, Americans are voting to elect two governors and 305 mayors and decide numerous ballot initiatives. Here are six of the day's most gripping votes.

New Jersey and SeaTac, Wash.: Raise the minimum wage?

REUTERS/Jason Redmond
Special services worker Kaolani Baker pushes a trolley to pick up luggage bins at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in SeaTac, Wash., Oct. 30, 2013. Voters in this working-class Seattle suburb, which encompasses the region's main airport, will decide on Nov. 5 whether to enact one of the country's highest minimum wages in a ballot measure that supporters hope will serve as a model for similar efforts elsewhere.

New Jersey business and labor leaders have been locked in a $2.3 million battle to influence whether the state's lowest-paid workers should earn more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour – and whether the state constitution should be amended to tie future minimum-wage increases to the cost of living. The initiative, expected to pass, is a workaround conceived by Democrats after Gov. Chris Christie (R) vetoed a legislative bill to raise the minimum wage.

Meanwhile, in the country's opposite corner, the town of SeaTac, Wash., home of the Seattle airport, has become the site of an experiment by labor unions: They want to raise the town's minimum wage to $15 an hour and grant paid sick days to all workers. The pay rate would be vastly higher than any other minimum wage in the country: Employers in the state pay their workers a minimum of $9.19 per hour, already the highest state-level wage.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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