Updated on: December 6, 2024
Missouri voters have approved a ballot measure that increases the state’s minimum wage in phases and will require employers to provide paid sick leave to employees.
Missouri voters have approved Proposition A, which will increase the state’s minimum wage in phases.
Under the approved measure, the Missouri state minimum wage will increase as follows:
Effective Date |
Hourly Rate |
| January 1, 2025 | $13.75 |
| January 1, 2026 | $15.00 |
Beginning January 1, 2027, the minimum wage will be adjusted based on changes to the Consumer Price Index.
Missouri law provides that employers must pay tipped employees a minimum cash wage of at least 50 percent of the state minimum wage. Consequently, the minimum cash wage for tipped employees will increase as follows:
Effective Date |
Hourly Rate |
| January 1, 2025 | $6.88 per hour |
| January 1, 2026 | $7.50 per hour |
Employers in Missouri should pay their employees in accordance with provisions of Proposition A.
Missouri voters have approved a ballot initiative, Proposition A, which requires all employers to provide paid sick leave to employees. Proposition A will take effect on May 1, 2025.
The law applies to all employers. However, the amount of paid sick leave that employees must be permitted to use on an annual basis depends on the size of the employer.
Employer Size |
Paid Sick Leave |
| 15 or more employees | 56 hours of earned paid sick leave per year |
| 14 or fewer employees | 40 hours of earned paid sick leave per year |
To determine employer size, count all full-time, part-time, or temporary employees being compensated for performing work in Missouri.
An employer whose number of employees goes above and below 15 employees per week over the year may have to allow employees to use up to 56 hours of earned paid sick leave per year. The requirement is triggered if an employer maintained fifteen or more employees in the state on the payroll for some portion of a working day in each of twenty or more different calendar weeks, including any periods of leave, and whether or not the weeks were consecutive, in either the current or the preceding year (irrespective of whether the same individuals were in employment in each working day).
The law applies to individuals employed in Missouri but contains several exceptions.
Employees must accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. An employee will begin to accrue paid sick time at the commencement of their employment or May 1, 2025 (whichever is later). The law does not address whether employers can cap annual or overall accrual. However, employers are permitted to limit annual use to 40 hours (employers with 14 or fewer employees) or 56 hours (employers with 15 or more employees).
Note: Executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales employees who are exempt from overtime requirements under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act will be assumed to work 40 hours per work week for purposes of earned paid sick leave accrual. When an employee's normal work week is less than forty hours, earned paid sick leave will accrue based upon that normal work week.
An employer with a paid leave policy that meets or exceeds the paid sick leave accrual requirements and has leave that may be used for the same purposes and under the same conditions as earned paid sick leave is not required to provide additional paid sick leave. The paid sick time must be compensated at a rate that meets or exceeds the employee's regular hourly rate and with the same benefits, including health care benefits, as the employee typically earns during their hours worked.
An employer must either:
Employers are not required to pay out sick leave upon an employee’s termination, resignation, retirement, or other separation from employment for accrued earned paid sick leave that has not been used.
An employer may provide all earned paid sick leave that an employee is expected to accrue in a year at the beginning of the year. The law is silent on whether frontloading allows an employer to avoid carryover requirements.
When employees use sick time, they must be paid the “same hourly rate” and with the same benefits, including health care benefits, as the employee typically earns during hours worked. The rate cannot be less than the state minimum wage. The rate is calculated as follows:
Pay Basis |
Calculation |
| Hourly | Same hourly rate. |
| Salaried employees – exempt or nonexempt | The rate is determined by dividing the wages the employee earns in the previous pay period by the total number of hours worked during the previous pay period. |
| Commissioned | Whether base wage plus commission or commission only – the “same hourly rate” is the greater of their base wage or the state minimum wage. |
| Piece rate or a fee-for-service basis | Employers must use a reasonable calculation of the wages or fees the employee would have received if they had worked. |
| Multiple Hourly Rates |
The same hourly rate can be either:
Whatever method the employer uses, the employer must use a consistent method for each employee throughout a year. |
| Employees who receive tips | Must be paid the employee’s regular hourly rate or 100% of the effective minimum wage without deduction of any tips as a credit. |
The following employees must retain and be able to use their paid sick leave:
Additionally, an employee that is separated from and then rehired within nine months by the same employer must have their previously accrued and unused earned paid sick leave reinstated. The employee is also entitled to use accrued earned paid sick leave and accrue additional earned paid sick leave at the re-commencement of their employment.
Earned paid sick leave may be used in the smaller of hourly increments or the smallest increment that the employer's payroll system uses to account for absences or use of other time. An employee may use earned paid sick leave as it is accrued and when an employer chooses to loan them earned paid sick in advance of accrual.
An employee may use paid sick leave:
Employees may make requests for paid sick leave orally, in writing, by electronic means, or by other means acceptable to the employer. The request must:
Note: When the need for paid sick leave is not foreseeable, an employer may require an employee to provide notice of the need to use earned paid sick leave as soon as practical.
Employers must provide employees written notice about earned paid sick leave within fourteen calendar days of the commencement of employment or on April 15, 2025 (whichever is later). See the text of the law for further details.
An employer that requires notice of the need to use earned paid sick leave where the need is not foreseeable must provide a written policy that contains procedures for the employee to provide notice. The law prohibits an employer that has not provided to the employee a copy of its written policy for providing this notice from denying an employee from using earned paid sick leave based on non-compliance with such a policy.
Beginning April 15, 2025, employers must display a poster that contains the information required by law in a visible and accessible place in each establishment where such employees are employed, provided that such poster has been made available by the Department of Industrial Relations (the Department).
An employer may require reasonable documentation for paid sick leave used for three or more consecutive workdays.
In cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, when responding to an employer’s request for documentation, it is the employee’s choice which type of lawful documentation to provide. See the text of the law for further details. An employer may not require that the documentation explain the nature of the illness, details of the underlying health needs, or the details of the domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, unless otherwise required by law.
Proposition A prohibits an employer or other person from interfering with, restraining, or denying an employee from using or attempting to use their right to paid sick leave.
Employers are also prohibited from:
Retaliating or discriminating against an employee or former employee for exercising their rights. See the text of the law for further details.
Employers must retain records documenting hours worked by employees and earned paid sick time taken by employees, for a period of not less than three years, and must also allow the state labor department access to these such records. The law does not require that information to be included on employee wage statements.
Employers must maintain an employee’s or their family member’s health or safety information separately from other personnel information; treat it as confidential medical records; and release it only with the express written permission of the affected employee. Employers must keep records documenting hours worked by employees and earned paid sick leave taken by employees for a period of not less than three years. See the text of the law for further details.
An employer may only disclose details relating to an employee’s or an employee’s family member’s health information, domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking as a condition of providing earned paid sick leave where required by law.
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