Most Missouri workers will now accumulate an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.
In addition to staying home due to sickness or injury, workers can also use paid sick leave to care for a sick or injured family member or to get legal or medical help related to domestic violence or sexual assault. Public employers are exempted, and so are private businesses with less than $500,000 in annual sales.
The new sick leave requirements, which went into effect Thursday, were passed into law as part of Proposition A, which was approved by voters in November with 57.6% of the vote. It also increased the state minimum wage, which went up to $13.75 an hour on Jan. 1 and will increase again to $15 at the start of next year.
The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the election results. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought by business associations alleging that Proposition A's ballot language was misleading.
Efforts to undo or change Proposition A's provisions have also been underway in the state legislature. A bill that would strip the sick leave provisions out of the statute passed the House, but a series of Democratic filibusters stalled it in the Senate.
With two weeks remaining in its legislative session, the legislature could still pass a bill to change or repeal the sick leave provisions.
If it does, any changes will not go into effect as law until August unless both chambers approve an emergency clause, which would let the law go into effect earlier. In that event, it's not clear what will happen to workers' accumulated sick leave hours.
The start of paid sick leave comes on May 1, which is celebrated across the world as International Workers' Day.
The River City Journalism Fund supports St. Louis Public Radio's Statehouse internship. Evy Lewis is the 2025 reporting intern. See rcjf.org for more information about the fund, which seeks to advance journalism in St. Louis.
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