Missouri workers have 21 days left until a voter-approved law mandating paid sick leave goes away.
In November, Missouri voters passed Proposition A, which raised the minimum wage and allowed employees to earn paid sick leave. It passed with nearly 58% of the vote.
Fran Marion, a Wendy’s employee in Kansas City, said she was ecstatic when the proposition passed.
“I was just like: ‘Yes, finally, we're being listened to. We're being heard,’” Marion said.
Through Proposition A, the minimum wage in Missouri rose to $13.75 an hour in 2025. It will rise again to $15 an hour beginning in 2026. It also tied the minimum wage in Missouri to the Consumer Price Index beginning in 2027.
Additionally, the statute allowed employees to earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.
For Marion, the sick leave would have helped after she had a series of ministrokes.
“I've had two follow-ups, and I've only made it to one, because I can't afford to lose that money,” Marion said.
The sick leave part of the proposition went into effect on May 1.
But beginning Aug. 28, that mandated sick leave will go away because of a law passed by the Republican-led Missouri legislature in May. The minimum wage tie to the Consumer Price Index was also removed.
Marion said when state lawmakers repealed the sick leave portion, she went from being ecstatic to angry.
“How it feels [is] that my health doesn't matter, my vote doesn't matter. I don't matter,” Marion said.
When voters approved Proposition A, state Rep. Sherri Gallick, R-Belton, said she received a letter from a business owner in her district.
“He said, we may survive the minimum wage increase; however, the … mandated sick leave is of great concern to the point we're questioning whether we'll still be in business a year from now,” Gallick said.
Because voters approved a statute change and not a constitutional amendment, lawmakers could change or repeal parts or all of Proposition A.
Gallick was one of several Republicans who filed legislation for the 2025 session to eliminate the mandated sick leave.
“I heard from many, many businesses that said they were going to cut hours. They were going to look at alternatives,” Gallick said.
Gallick’s version is the one lawmakers ended up passing, with Gov. Mike Kehoe eventually signing it.
Rep. David Tyson Smith, D-Columbia, said Republican lawmakers repealing the sick leave portion in the session immediately following the November election was shocking.
“Because people had just voted for it. It was on top of everyone's mind. You're just going to walk in and say, ‘No, you're not going to do this.’ It was disgusting,” Smith said.
When Gallick’s bill went through a public hearing along with another one centered on paid sick leave, over 400 people submitted public testimony, most of it online. The majority of respondents were opposed to repealing paid leave.
Several Missouri business organizations supported Gallick’s bill in that hearing.
Kara Corches, president and CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Proposition A was a job killer because not all businesses work the same.
“Having this one size fits all approach, it was going to exponentially increase costs for businesses. And you know, when inputs are increased, then either jobs can be lost, hours can be cut,” Corches said.
Richard von Glahn, policy director with Missouri Jobs with Justice, one of the organizations behind Proposition A, doesn’t buy Corches’ argument.
“Proposition A allowed businesses to still tailor their sick leave policies and their paid time off policies in the ways that they needed to, but what it did is it provided a guardrail for Missouri workers to protect us from companies that would exploit us and not provide any benefits,” von Glahn said.
Corches said the chamber encourages competitive wages and benefits, but not as something that is required by law.
“We just are fundamentally against any mandate on businesses. We think that government should stay out of the way of job creators and let businesses set their own workplace policies how they see best fit,” Corches said.
Corches said Proposition A also created unique challenges for Missouri restaurants and health care providers. That includes employers having to wait for three consecutive sick days to require an employee to provide documentation for their absence.
Buddy Lahl, CEO of the Missouri Restaurant Association, said when the organization explained the new requirements to businesses, it was met with disbelief.
“Many were concerned that they'd have to hire an HR director just to comply with the regulations for sick pay. So, they're very pleased that they don't have to do that,” Lahl said.
One of the people who submitted testimony against Gallick’s bill was Miles Pearson, who owns a small business in Springfield.
“It's just so sad to see the will of the voters overturned like that for some big corporate pressure that just hurts all of us, small businesses and the actual people, working class people in Missouri,” Pearson said.
Pearson owns a home renovation and repair business. While he doesn’t have any permanent employees, Pearson periodically hires labor help or will subcontract.
“[The sick leave] was really like such a minimal burden, and it was taken away because they don't want workers to have to have rights,” Pearson said.
When the legislation passed the House in March, Speaker Jon Patterson, R-Lee's Summit, said he saw repealing sick leave but keeping the minimum wage increase in 2026 as a compromise position.
“The onerous burdens of the sick leave part, I think we're compromising with the people and saying this really is not sustainable, and really, I believe if it were implemented, it would really hurt the people that were trying to help,” Patterson said.
Smith doesn’t agree that it’s a compromise.
“That's the equivalent of sticking a knife in someone's back 12 inches, pulling out six and saying, ‘OK, we've compromised. We're OK.’ No, the people wanted paid sick leave,” Smith said.
Because the upcoming law did not have an emergency clause, employees in Missouri are still earning sick leave now. That will end Aug. 28.
That leaves employees and employers with the uncertainty of what to do when that day arrives.
Corches said the chamber has fielded lots of questions on what businesses can do when that date comes, and the advice differs depending on the business.
“I think the advice is probably going to be, let [employees] use whatever days that they accrued under those Prop A accrual requirements probably within a year's timeframe, or pay them out for those days,” Corches said.
Von Glahn said while he knows businesses will revert to their leave policies from before, he has heard from some employers that will be keeping the new sick leave law, even though they don’t have to.
“There are some employers that really value democratic principles and norms no matter what our legislature does and so are pledging to keep it and we're going to lift those employers up and, you know, celebrate them as real champions for Missouri families,” von Glahn said.
Pearson is one of those employers who will be keeping the sick leave policy.
“I don't have full time employees to where it wasn't something I was thinking about before. I've just focused on paying people a good wage,” Pearson said. “But this is something people should have, no matter the job they're at.”
While paid sick leave will no longer be in Missouri law after this month, it could return through the Missouri Constitution.
Unlike a statute change, a constitutional amendment cannot be undone by lawmakers. It instead requires another constitutional amendment that must be approved by voters for any changes to happen.
Missouri Jobs with Justice has already filed a proposed constitutional amendment that would once again require paid sick leave.
The proposed amendment has other measures, including annual automatic increases to the minimum wage to account for inflation and enforcement through lawsuits and new regulations. It would also prohibit the legislature from clarifying the measures within the amendment.
Gallick said it’s important for Republicans to get ahead of the proposed amendment so it doesn’t pass.
“I think it is best to leave this with the employer and the employee, and if there is a grievance or something, you know, you contact EEOC [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission],” Gallick said. “But I think most places really do pay more than minimum wage, and a lot of places will work with employees.”
For a proposed amendment brought by the public to make it onto the ballot, it needs signatures from 8% of voters from six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts. That’s roughly 170,000 signatures.
Von Glahn believes if the amendment does get on the ballot, it will pass.
Marion said she’s interested in doing “whatever it takes” to get paid sick leave for Missouri workers.
“Let's go for it, because we are tired of not being heard and being treated as less than as human beings,” Marion said.
For now, Missouri voters will have to wait to see if they’ll get a do-over on paid sick leave.
