An electronic ballast with higher startup voltage includes converter with a switching circuit (40) responsive to a switching control signal (50) and operably connected to a DC bus (30); a DC controller (44) comparing a sensed DC bus voltage signal and a reference DC bus voltage signal to generate the switching control signal (50); and a startup adjustor operably connected to the DC controller (44) to adjust at least one of the sensed DC bus voltage signal and the reference DC bus voltage signal for a predetermined time at startup so that startup DC bus voltage is greater than steady state DC bus voltage.