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Quick Hits
- Missouri voters approved a ballot measure to enact a law that will require employers to allow employees to use up to fifty-six (56) or forty (40) hours of earned paid sick time per year depending on the size of the employer.
- Employees will be entitled to start accruing paid sick time on May 1, 2025, and employers must provide written notice of the paid sick time by April 15, 2025.
- The law will raise the minimum wage to $13.75 per hour on January 1, 2025.
Missouri voters approved Proposition A, known as the “Minimum Wage and Earned Paid Sick Time Initiative,” with nearly 58 percent voting in favor, according to the unofficial results posted by the Missouri secretary of state as of November 6, 2024. The ballot measure was one of three state ballot measures calling for paid sick leave approved by voters across the nation in the 2024 election.
The approval of Proposition A adopts a new law that will allow employees in Missouri to use up to fifty-six (56) or forty (40) hours, depending on the size of the employer, per year of earned paid sick time (PST), including paid “safe” leave. Employees will accrue PST at a rate of one (1) hour for every thirty (30) hours worked. Accrual will begin on May 1, 2025, and employers must provide written notice by April 15, 2025.
Additionally, Proposition A increases the state minimum wage to $13.75 per hour beginning on January 1, 2025, and calls for regular increases in future years.
Paid Sick Leave
The law will require employers to provide one hour of PST for every thirty hours worked. Notably, there is no maximum or cap on the accrual, which means, based on a forty-hour workweek, employees are likely to accrue approximately seventy (70) hours of PST per year (or more if the employee works overtime).
Further, employees will be allowed to carryover eighty (80) hours of unused PST from year to year. The law does permit employers to frontload PST to employees at the beginning of the year in the amount they are expected to accrue during the year. If frontloading, employers may payout employees unused PST at the end of the year in lieu of carryover.
However, employers with fifteen or more employees will be able to limit use of PST to fifty-six (56) hours, or seven days based on an eight-hour workday, per year, and employers with fewer than fifteen employees may limit use to forty (40) hours, or five days, per year.
Under the law, employees may use PST for care, meaning care or treatment of a physical or mental illness, injury, or other health condition, or preventive care, of oneself or a family member. The law further allows employees to use PST in the case of a public health emergency where employees’ place of business or schools for employees’ children are closed, or to care for oneself or a family member due to a communicable disease. The law also provides PST to be used for safe leave to handle certain situations where an employee or employee’s family member has been a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
Minimum Wage Increase
On January 1, 2025, employers will be required to pay Missouri employees a minimum wage of $13.75 per hour. The minimum wage will increase to $15.00 per hour on January 1, 2026. On January 1 of each subsequent year, the minimum wage will be adjusted based on the cost of living, as reflected in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers published by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Key Takeaways
Employers with employees in Missouri may want to review their current PTO and paid sick leave policies and their wage structures for compliance with the upcoming PST and minimum wage requirements under the new law. In particular, employers may want to consider whether it is in their best interest to frontload the PST at the beginning of the year and payout unused PST at the end of the year in lieu of carryover, noting that Missouri law does not require the payout of paid sick leave upon termination.
A more comprehensive breakdown of Proposition A’s PST requirements is available here.
Ogletree Deakins’ Kansas City and St. Louis offices will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Leaves of Absence, Missouri, and Wage and Hour blogs.
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