Upholding the Sick Leave and Minimum Wage Vote of the People

Upholding the Sick Leave and Minimum Wage Vote of the People

Defend the raise and the days
Type: 
News

In 2024 the League supported Prop A for healthy families and it was supported by 57 percent of voters in November. The proposition included mandatory sick leave and an increase in the minimum wage. However, in 2025, the Missouri House passed HB567 to eliminate Prop A's sick leave benefit; the Senate adopted that bill with no changes.  It is now on the Governor's desk awaiting signature or veto.  

The first stage of Prop A took place in January, raising wages to $13.75 for nearly 440,000 MO workers, injecting over $365 million into the MO economy. Beginning May 1, employers with business receipts over $500,000 a year must provide at least an hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. Employers with fewer than 15 workers must allow workers to earn at least 40 hours per year, with larger employers mandated to allow at least 56 hours. Those provisions would provide sick leave for 728,000 workers, or over 1 in 3 Missouri workers, according to an analysis from the Missouri Budget Project.

HB567 would allow the minimum wage to increase to $15 per hour in 2026, as voters approved, but it would not be adjusted for inflation thereafter — a policy that has been in place since 2007. The sick leave provisions would be repealed entirely.

The Missouri Supreme Court recently voted to uphold Proposition in a case that claimed the wording of the proposition was misleading and violated Missouri’s state constitution’s single subject requirement on a ballot initiative. 

League to which this content belongs: 
Metro St. Louis