Missourians vote to raise minimum wage, demand paid sick leave • Missouri Independent

An effort to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and guarantee paid sick leave gained support from Missouri voters Tuesday night.

With 81% of precincts reporting, Proposition A won with Missouri voters 59% to 41%.

The approval follows a trend of Missourians using the initiative petition process to raise the minimum wage — and, more broadly, Missourians using the process to push policies that run counter to the beliefs of the Republican-dominated state Legislature.

Proposal A was with the support various labor unions and labor advocacy groups, social justice and civil rights organizations, more than 500 state business owners and others.

Some business groups, including the state Chamber of Commerce, opposed it, especially the guaranteed portion of sick leave. But there was no coordinated opposition campaign.

A campaign in support of the measure, called Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, has raised nearly $6 million, including from out-of-state groups that do not disclose their donors, and has collected 210,000 signatures to keep the issue issued to the entire state. vote.

The current minimum wage in Missouri is $12.30, which equates to $492 per week before taxes. The state minimum wage would increase to $13.75 next year and $15 in January 2026, according to the ballot measure.

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

Voters approved raising the minimum wage in 2006 with 75% of the vote and again in 2018 with 62% of the vote.

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

The paid sick leave regulation will come into force on May 1, 2025.

Without sick leave, proponents argue, workers would have to choose between their financial and physical well-being: go to work sick or lose needed pay.

Missouri will join 15 states that require employers to provide paid sick leave. The United States, unlike almost every other country, does not have paid sick leave at the federal level, so states as well as cities have taken the lead.

Some business groups have expressed alarm about the sick leave provisions in particular, saying the proposal represents a government overreach of what business owners’ decisions should be.

At the same time, a coalition of hundreds of businessmen in the state signed on in support of the ballot measure, arguing that the policy helps their bottom line by causing lower turnover, increased productivity and improved health and safety conditions.

The ballot measure would change state law but not the constitution, meaning the Legislature could overturn it, but advocates on both sides of the issue told The Independent last month they think that’s unlikely.