JEFFERSON CITY 鈥 Organizers for the campaign seeking a higher minimum wage and guaranteed paid sick time off submitted signatures Wednesday to put the question to voters later this year.
Representatives for the campaign, Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, said canvassers turned in more than 200,000 signatures for the ballot question, which is set to appear on the Nov. 5 ballot if election officials validate enough signatures.
The question would raise Missouri鈥檚 current minimum wage of $12 to $13.75 starting Jan. 1, 2025. Beginning in 2026, the minimum hourly rate would rise to $15.
This year鈥檚 push to raise the minimum wage would also guarantee paid sick time to workers. Employers would need to provide one hour of sick time for every 30 hours an employee works.
The proposed law would require employers to honor use of up to 40 hours of accumulated paid sick time per year if company has fewer than 15 employees, or 56 hours per year if there are 15 or more employees.
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Unused paid sick time at the end of a year, up to 80 hours, would be rolled over to the new year. Or, the employer could cut a check to the employee at the end of the year for unused sick time.
The earned sick time off requirement wouldn鈥檛 apply to government workers, employees of retail or service companies with less than $500,000 in annual business, offenders within the Missouri Department of Corrections, babysitters, golf caddies and others, according to .
Employers would be free to offer earned paid sick leave plans 鈥渕ore generous鈥 that the minimum outlined in the proposed law.
The proposal says earned paid sick leave could be used for an employee or a family member鈥檚 mental or physical illness, injury or health condition, an employee鈥檚 need for medical diagnosis or preventative care.
Time could also be used if a public official closes an employee鈥檚 place of business due to a public health emergency, or for addressing domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking incidents.
The proposed law says the paid time off 鈥渟hall be provided upon鈥 employee request, and also says the employee shall make a 鈥済ood faith effort鈥 to notify the employer of time needed off if the necessity is foreseeable. The employer may still require the employee to notify them 鈥渁s soon as practicable鈥 if the need to use time off is not foreseeable.
At the secretary of state鈥檚 office, a crowd of supporters helped carry boxes of signatures into the building on Wednesday.
鈥淲e know that a paid sick leave and paying employees a fair wage improves lives,鈥 said DeMarco Davidson, executive director of Metropolitan Congregations United.
Phillip Arnzen, director of legislative affairs for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the organization opposes the petition but said Wednesday no decision had been made as to whether to fund a campaign against it.
鈥淲hile we do encourage our members and employers to offer the best benefits they can, whether that鈥檚 pay, sick leave, health insurance, we do oppose new government mandates,鈥 he said. 鈥淓specially when it comes to minimum wage and other things like that, that does increase the cost on businesses.鈥
At the same time, the group Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy, which said it includes more than 400 members, released a series of statements from business owners supportive of the effort.
鈥淭he minimum wage needs to be raised. Small businesses like mine depend on local customers with money to spend,鈥 said Joseph Chevalier, owner of Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia, in a statement. 鈥淚f a small bookstore like ours can plan ahead for the wage increases and paid sick time in this ballot initiative, so can other businesses.鈥
Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages submitted signatures four days before the Sunday deadline for submission.
Other initiative efforts were also poised to submit signatures ahead of the deadline, including the effort to overturn the state鈥檚 near-total abortion ban and a separate effort to legalize sports betting.
Ed Rhode, spokesman for a campaign to open a casino at the Lake of the Ozarks, said Wednesday 鈥渨e believe we are on schedule and plan to turn in our signatures on Sunday.鈥
All three of those efforts seek to change the state constitution, which, if enacted, could only be amended afterward through another vote of the people 鈥 not by legislators.
Legislators are debating their own plan that would ask voters to make the constitution more difficult to amend.
The minimum wage and paid time off campaign is aiming for a statutory change, meaning organizers have to collect fewer signatures to make the ballot than the proposed constitutional changes.
It also means lawmakers and the governor could alter the higher minimum wage and paid time off provisions if voters do ultimately approve of them.
Even so, amid strong public support for a higher minimum wage, Republican efforts to slow minimum wage increases approved by voters in 2018 failed.