Is Missouri next in line for providing paid leave?

Currently, 18 states (plus Washington D.C.) have leave laws giving employees time off to care for themselves or family members. These states include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Missouri could be added to this list.

To be included on the November ballot, a petition for a statutory change to Missouri law needs around 100,000 signatures. The campaign behind the paid leave initiative, Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, delivered more than 210,000 signatures to the Secretary of State.

Two other groups backing the Missouri initiative include the:

• Fairness Project
• Missouri Jobs with Justice organization

Leave accruals

As currently written, the initiative would allow Missouri employees to earn one hour of paid time off for every 30 hours worked. Missouri employers with under 15 employees could limit the leave usage to 40 hours per year. Those with 15 or more employees could limit leave usage to 56 hours per year.

Should this measure pass, Missouri employees would begin accruing leave upon hire or May 1, 2025, whichever is later, and may use paid leave as it is accrued. Employers could, however, frontload the leave if they preferred.

Leave reasons

Missouri employees could take paid leave for the following reasons:

• Their own condition or for preventive care;
• To care for a family member or for their preventive care;
• If the employee's place of business or their child's school/daycare is closed due to a public health emergency; and
• Domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, of the employee's family member.

Family members include children, parents, spouses, registered domestic partners, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, and a person for whom the employee is responsible for providing or arranging health or safety-related care.

Not everyone is excited about paid leave

Opponents of the Missouri measure claim the paid leave requirements will hurt businesses, and, therefore, the state's economy. The U.S. as a whole has yet to pass any form of paid leave laws at the federal level, although legislators have tried over the years.

State minimum wage increases

The initiative would also increase the state's minimum wage from $12.30 to $13.75 per hour on January 1, 2025. It would increase again to $15 per hour on January 1, 2026. After that, there would be annual cost-of-living adjustments.