Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages prepare for a press conference in May, 2024 (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).

A measure that would guarantee paid sick leave for over 700,000 Missouri workers who currently lack it, as well as gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, will appear on voters’ ballots next month.

The ballot initiative, called Proposition A, has been backed by various unions and workers’ advocacy groups, social justice and civil rights organizations, over 500 state business owners and others. 

Some business groups, including the state Chamber of Commerce, have opposed it, especially the guaranteed sick leave portion. But thus far there hasn’t been a coordinated opposition campaign. 

The campaign in favor of the measure, called Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, has raised over $5 million — including from out-of-state groups that don’t disclose their donors— and collected 210,000 signatures to have the issue placed on the statewide ballot.

Most expect the ballot measure to succeed, given polling, national trends with similar ballot measures and the lack of coordinated opposition. Missourians have approved minimum wage increases on the ballot twice before by wide margins. 

“We believe full-time work deserves better than poverty,” said Richard Von Glahn, campaign manager for Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, “but current minimum wage — that’s what it leads to.” 

The current minimum wage in Missouri is $12.30, which is equivalent to $492 per week, before taxes.

And without sick leave, proponents argue, workers have to choose between their financial and physical wellbeing — going into work sick or losing out on a needed paycheck.

“Everybody gets sick. Everybody has a child or someone they care for that gets sick,” Von Glahn said, “But when there’s an unequal ability to care for yourself or care for your family, that is unjust.”

Businesses would be required to provide one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, up to five days per year for small businesses and seven days per year for larger businesses. Small businesses are those with fewer than 15 employees.

Some business groups have said the proposal constitutes government overreach in what should be the decisions of business owners.

“A business owner’s ability to set their own workplace policies and procedures is really the bedrock on which our free enterprise system is built,” said Kara Corches, interim president and CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “So this is creating a new mandate for employers in terms of wage as well as paid leave policy, that is really against that principle of ‘let business decide.”

“…We want to make sure that Missouri is the most business friendly state in the nation, and we don’t think that this proposition is sending that message,” Corches added.

Sick leave

The ballot measure would make sick leave guaranteed for 728,000 workers who currently lack it statewide, or over 1 in 3 Missouri workers, according to an analysis from the progressive nonprofit the Missouri Budget Project.

Many of those who lack paid sick leave are the lowest earners.

“Sick days are very common amongst the highest paid workers, you know, executives, those types of positions,” Von Glahn said, “but particularly in some of the lower wage industries — the industries that we’ve been calling essential for a number of years now — construction, retail, food service, nursing home, childcare workers, they lack access to this.”

Employees would be allowed to take the time for mental or physical illness, to take care of a family member, or due to a domestic violence situation, according to the proposition.

Employers could require documentation when a worker takes three or more days off in a row, such as a doctor’s note, but wouldn’t be allowed to require disclosure of detailed health information.

Corches said the paid sick leave part of the measure is what “gives us a little more heartburn, just because it’s so nebulous,” and open to interpretation. She pointed specifically to confusion around provisions that would give employees a civil cause of action to sue if employers break the law, and another provision that prohibits employers from retaliation when workers take leave. 

“Business owners have enough on their plates, just trying to, you know, keep their businesses open, retain and recruit employees, and this nine page new proposition is very complicated and is going to make compliance quite challenging,” Corches said.

If the measure passes in Missouri, the paid sick time provision will kick in on May 1, 2025.

Ray McCarty, CEO of Associated Industries of Missouri, a business advocacy organization, raised concerns that “you will have people that abuse the system,” meaning those who take sick leave who don’t qualify. McCarty said in some cases employers may need proof of the legitimate absence earlier than three days in, or need to ask for more detailed information.

Missouri would join 15 states that require employers to provide paid sick leave. The United States, unlike nearly every other country, lacks federal paid sick leave, so states, as well as cities, have taken the lead. 

In states that have adopted sick leave mandates, employees take, on average, two more sick days a year than prior to the law going into effect, a National Bureau of Economic Research report found.

Studies have found that offering paid sick time can increase workers’ productivity and reduce illness, and generally adds little or nothing to business expenses.

Nebraska and Alaska also have paid sick leave on the ballot this year.

Minimum wage

The ballot measure also would raise the state’s minimum wage to $13.75 next year and $15 in Jan. 2026. 

The increase would affect over 562,000 workers in the state, according to the Missouri Budget Project, or nearly one in every four workers. The minimum wage would be adjusted based on inflation every year after 2026.

McCarty said most members in Associated Industries of Missouri already pay at least $15 hourly, though they may not realize the “whole wage scale will slide up,” meaning raising the minimum wage could have spillover effects on other wages, for businesses to remain competitive. 

He said some employers could go over to Kansas and pay less, so may choose to be based in neighboring states. 

The states neighboring Missouri already have lower minimum wages, except for Illinois, which is $14 per hour. 

A coalition of hundreds of businesspeople in the state have signed on to support the ballot measure, arguing the policies help their bottom line, causing lower employee turnover, increased productivity and better health and safety conditions.

Ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage are generally likely to succeed, and have previously succeeded in Missouri, amidst legislative inaction or opposition.

Voters approved a minimum-wage hike in 2006, with 75% of the vote, and again in 2018, with 62% of the vote.

Advocates have had success with ballot measures as, for years, Republicans in the legislature have voted against or failed to hear proposals to increase the minimum wage, Von Glahn said. In 2017 the legislature passed a law prohibiting cities from raising the minimum wage beyond that of the state’s, after St. Louis city passed an ordinance to raise the city’s minimum wage.

The federal minimum wage has been stagnant, at $7.25, since 2009. Thirty states, including Missouri, have a minimum wage higher than the federal one.

‘Confident it will pass’

Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages has so far raised over $5 million, according to campaign filings. 

That includes two $1.2 million donations from the D.C.-based Sixteen Thirty Fund, in August and October, a progressive nonprofit that is not required to disclose its donors. Other large donors include Missouri Jobs with Justice Voter Action and the D.C.-based The Fairness Project.

The campaign has purchased over $1.4 million in television ads, slated to begin airing next week, according to Federal Communications Commission filings.

The ballot measure would change the state law but not the constitution, meaning the legislature could overturn it, but that is unlikely, McCarty said. 

“I don’t see any politician in their right mind — if this passes with a high percentage of votes, which we expect it will — I don’t see any politician in their right mind completely repealing the entire law,” he said, citing potential concerns about overturning the will of voters.

Corches said the Chamber is focused on the election and would only “start looking at, is it possible to modify this in the Capitol” if it passes.  

Von Glahn said Prop A will be a test of whether or not the legislature “respects the will of voters.”

The St. Louis University/YouGov poll conducted in August found the ballot measure had a strong backing, with 57% of those surveyed supporting it.

“We feel confident that it will pass next month, but we’re also doing the work,” Von Glahn said. “I mean, we’ve got people out canvassing every day, talking to voters about it.”