Missouri business groups weigh challenge to voter-approved minimum wage hike, sick leave

By Clara Bates

Missouri Independent

A coalition of Missouri business advocacy groups says it is exploring multiple avenues to challenge the implementation of Proposition A — a measure that Missouri voters passed on Tuesday that will raise the state’s minimum wage and guarantee sick leave for some workers.

The measure passed with 58% of the vote and had the support of various unions and workers’ advocacy groups, social justice and civil rights organizations, over 500 state business owners and others.

 

The minimum wage will increase to $13.75 in January and then $15 in 2026. The paid sick leave provisions go into effect next May.

Hoping to block implementation of the changes is a coalition of business advocacy groups — Associated Industries of Missouri, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Missouri Grocers Association, the Missouri Restaurant Association, the Missouri Retailers Association and the National Federation of Independent Business.

The coalition is “explor[ing] all available options, including possible legal action,” according to a statement released Wednesday.

“We are deeply disappointed by the passage of Proposition A,” the groups wrote, adding that the measure will increase costs for consumers and employers as well as “poses a legal risk for all employers,” by providing a cause of action for employees to sue.

The focus of concern among these business advocacy groups has been with the sick leave portion of the proposition, arguing it constrains business owner’s freedom to make their own decisions and opens them up to liability if they don’t follow the requirements.

Ray McCarty, CEO of Associated Industries of Missouri, said in an interview with The Independent that groups are exploring a lawsuit to challenge the law on the basis that it doesn’t meet the state constitution’s single-subject requirement, because benefits and wages are distinct issues. They are also looking into advocating for legislative changes when the General Assembly reconvenes in January.

“We’ll look at the legal challenge first,” McCarty said. “If we’re not successful with that, or we’re not able to get that off the ground, or we don’t believe that we have that high chance of success, then yes, we will be looking at bills to try to mitigate some of the problems that we see with it.”

Supporters of the measure, including Richard Von Glahn, campaign manager for Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, say efforts to overturn or weaken it are unlikely to succeed. Von Glahn said wages and benefits are part of overall compensation, so fall under the single-subject requirement. He added there were several opportunities for the group to voice an opinion with concerns about the language earlier, and they didn’t.

“They waged a campaign to try to convince voters to reject this. They lost,” Von Glahn said. “And so the idea of a lawsuit now kind of feels a little frivolous to me, and is a waste of time and resources. They would be better off making sure that they are educating their community and businesses about the requirements of the law, and helping for smooth implementation.”

Because the measure changes state law but not the constitution, the legislature could modify or overturn it without returning for a new vote of the people.

In 2018, after the state passed a minimum wage increase, some business interest groups advocated unsuccessfully for lawmakers to change pieces of it, Von Glahn said, “and that might happen again.”

“If I’m a politician, I know I have a limited amount of time in Jefferson City. There’s a limited amount of bills that can be heard and voted on,” he said. “Overturning the will of Missouri voters should not be high on the list.”

McCarty said the wide margin of passage could make it challenging to convince legislators to tweak the law.

“For 58 to 42, that’s very difficult for any legislator, even experienced ones who have been around a long time, it’s very difficult for them to go against the will of the people, and we understand that,” he said. “Some legislators may look at this and go, we don’t want to goof with it at all because the percentage was so high in support of it.”

Business leaders “have good reasons why we would want to change it,” McCarty said. But while they could try to move a bill through the legislature, he said they’d prefer to “head it off at the pass and just do away with it” through litigation.

A predicted victory

Prop A’s victory didn’t come as a surprise to most: It follows a trend of progressive initiative petition campaigns finding success in a state that hasn’t voted for a Democrat for statewide office since 2018

Paid sick leave measures also passed in Alaska and Nebraska, bringing the number of states with such laws to 18.

The details of the law are similar to those in states that have already adopted policies to expand access to paid sick leave. Employees can begin accruing and using sick time on May 1, 2025, earning one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to five days per year for small businesses (those with fewer than 15 employees) and seven days per year for larger businesses. Certain workers are exempt, and are listed in the full text of the law, including those employed on a “casual basis” for babysitting, workers employed in a private residence who work occasionally for six or fewer hours, and those who work in retail or service in a business that annually makes less than $500,000 in annual gross volume sales.

Von Glahn said that while canvassing, workers found common ground in their identity with other workers — regardless of party affiliation — who also have the experience of needing to leave work to pick their sick children up from school.

“And immediately what I get is people nodding their heads, ‘yeah, I have that too,’ and saying, it doesn’t make sense that some workers get punished for having to do that. “

Alejandro Gallardo, a restaurant prep cook in Columbia who canvassed with the campaign, said people he spoke to were surprised to hear about “what it’s really like in the restaurant industry,” and some were surprised to hear the minimum wage isn’t already $15.

Coworkers come into work sick “all the time,” he said, in his experience in the restaurant industry. One coworker who had the stomach flu, he remembers, came into work, saying “my stomach tells me I need to stay home, but my wallet tells me I need to come to work.”

Gallardo will qualify for sick leave for the first time in his career come May. He’ll no longer have to choose between going without pay or coming into work sick, calling it a “huge improvement for a lot of workers in the state.”

The ballot measure will 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.

The minimum wage increase is slated to affect over 562,000 workers in the state, according to the Missouri Budget Project, or nearly one in every four workers.

“This is a vital part of the community that’s not being treated the way it should be treated,” Gallardo said. And I think this proposition will go a long way to fix that.”