Missouri voters appear to have approved a statewide ballot initiative to increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and require private employers to provide paid sick leave.
Proposition A held approximately 58% of the vote, as of 12:30 a.m., according to a preliminary vote count by the Associated Press. Proponents of the measure had declared victory Tuesday night.
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This is the third time that Missouri voters have increased the minimum wage — after increases in 2006 and 2018.
Under Proposition A, Missouri’s minimum wage will increase in January 2025 from $12.30 an hour to $13.75. It will reach $15 an hour in January 2026 and be adjusted annually thereafter for inflation.
Fran Marion has been working in fast food for more than 20 years. At a Prop A watch party in midtown Kansas City, she said the initiative’s passage represents a decade of the "Fight for 15" movement.
“$15 is just the floor,” Marion said. “It’ll help us get to a point where we're able to survive a little bit more. The paid sick days makes it to where we don't have to pick between going to work sick or calling off. I'm a person before I'm a worker, and I need to be treated as such.”
Missouri did not previously require employers to provide sick time — it now joins 18 other states and Washington D.C. in doing so.
Paid sick leave will be available for existing workers starting May 1, 2025. Employers must provide one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.
Workers at businesses with fewer than 15 employees can earn up to five days per year while those at businesses with more than 15 employees could earn up to seven days per year.
Governmental entities, school districts and educational institutions are exempt from the new minimum wage. The sick time law also does not apply to government workers, retail or service employees who work at a business making less than $500,000 a year, babysitters and others.
Proposition A was placed on the Missouri ballot through the initiative petition process, and backed by the group Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages.
Terrence Wise has been organizing with Stand Up KC, a coalition of low wage workers, for more than a decade to raise pay. He says the initiative petition process saved the $15 minimum wage, after Missouri lawmakers preempted a similar wage increase in 2018.
“We've shown the rest of the world, the rest of the country, that regardless of what's going on outside of our state, we're able to come together and win,” Wise said. “We felt that we have the power as everyday Missourians to come together and make our lives better.”
Opponents of the measure, like the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, argued that Proposition A would make it harder to meet payroll and keep employees on board.
Supporters of the ballot measure said the raise in minimum wage and sick time would benefit thousands of low-wage workers across the state and help lift them out of poverty.
Genie Kastrup, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 1, said that the win will change the lives of thousands of union workers in Missouri.
“No worker should have to choose between their health and receiving a paycheck," Kastrup said at the Kansas City watch party. "This is long overdue but I am so proud of those who never stopped fighting.”
A full-time employee earning Missouri’s previous minimum wage of $12.30 would bring in $492 weekly before taxes. Once Proposition A goes into effect and reaches $15 an hour in 2026, that same employee will earn $600 a week before taxes.
