Low-wage Missouri workers who just started accruing paid sick days this month are now likely to lose them by the end of August, courtesy of their Republican legislators.
Lawmakers in the state Senate approved a bill last week overturning new sick leave protections that voters had approved by referendum in November 2024. The repeal passed 22-11 over a Democratic filibuster effort, with all but one Republican in support, after already passing the GOP-controlled state House.
The bill is now headed for the desk of Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe, who suggested on Friday he would sign it.
If he does, employers in the state would no longer be obligated to provide workers with one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours they work, capped at 56 hours per year. The requirement would end on Aug. 28, having only gone into effect on May 1.
Missourians had approved the sick leave protections by a wide margin, with nearly 58% voting in support.
Richard von Glahn, policy director at the worker center Missouri Jobs with Justice, said it was disappointing to see legislators reverse the will of their constituents. He noted that last week the state’s Republicans also proposed a new constitutional amendment to nullify voter-approved abortion protections.
“People don’t like being told they’re stupid,” von Glahn told HuffPost. “It’s really a plague that’s infected the Republican Party here.”
The new sick leave law also included a new formula raising the state’s minimum wage. An increase to $15 slated for next year will remain intact, but subsequent cost-of-living increases will be blocked by the GOP repeal. That means lawmakers or voters would have to approve any raises after 2026.
A spokesperson for Kehoe did not immediately respond Monday when asked about the governor’s plans for the legislation. Last week he called the repeal “a huge issue to both small and large business and economic developers.”
Unlike other wealthy countries, the U.S. does not require employers to provide sick leave. So an estimated 20% of workers go without it, meaning they lose a day’s pay when they have to care for themselves or a loved one who’s ill. Those with no access to paid sick days are much more likely to work in low-wage jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Kansas City Star via Getty Images
Without a federal law in place, a growing number of states and localities are approving their own — including those that lean conservative. Referendums similar to Missouri’s also passed in Alaska and Nebraska last fall, giving backers of the proposals a way around GOP opposition in legislatures. Those ballot measures brought the total number of states with sick leave mandates to 18.
Business groups opposed the sick leave measure in Missouri and quickly tried to scuttle the new law through a legal challenge. But the state Supreme Court in April upheld the results of the referendum, known as Proposition A, leaving the state legislature the main avenue for repeal.
Von Glahn said the labor and public health groups that supported the law sought a compromise with the state’s GOP legislators, proposing a carveout so that firms with 10 or fewer employees would be exempt. Under that scenario, more than 80% of workers in the state would still have protections, but the smallest employers would not be bound to the law, he said.
“That’s kind of the definition of a compromise,” von Glahn said. “They walked away from it and never really came back into serious conversations about it.”
He called the procedural maneuver Republicans used to end the Democratic filibuster last Wednesday a “nuclear option” to push the repeal through. The state’s legislative session ended on Friday.
For now, the existing law remains in effect, at least until the end of August. By then, many employers will have given their workers paid sick days for the first time — and will have to decide whether they want to strip them away moving forward. Doing so could save on labor costs, but runs the risk of alienating loyal employees.
Backers of the sick leave law are also free to pursue another referendum. Von Glahn said he filed paperwork for one the day after the Senate voted for repeal. If supporters gather enough signatures, a similar proposal could end up on the ballot in the fall of 2026.
Von Glahn is optimistic about its chances.
“Do I think Missouri voters who passed something with 58% support would pass it again, probably with higher support, if they’re told politicians took it away from [them]? Yes,” he said. “I don’t think that’s a hard campaign.”