Missourians voted for paid sick leave. Gov. Mike Kehoe just signed bill undoing it

Matthew Kelly and Kacen Bayless, The Kansas City Star on Jul 11, 2025

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Gov. Mike Kehoe on Thursday signed a bill into law repealing Missouri workers’ paid sick leave protections that voters overwhelmingly supported in November.

The rollback of Proposition A, which nearly 58% of voters favored, is the latest example of Missouri officials relitigating and undermining seemingly progressive policies enacted at the ballot box.

The right to an abortion, also enshrined by voters in 2024, will be back on the ballot next year in the form of a proposed ban.

In a statement accompanying the signing of the sick leave overhaul and a separate tax cuts bill, Kehoe couched the new law as “pro-business legislation.”

“Today, we are protecting the people who make Missouri work — families, job creators, and small business owners — by cutting taxes, rolling back overreach, and eliminating costly mandates,” Kehoe said.

The sick leave protections requiring employers with 15 or more workers to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked will officially be repealed on Aug. 28.

Proposition A’s other key provision, a $15 minimum wage, will remain in place. But the bill signed by Kehoe repeals future minimum wage increases based on inflation.

“The governor’s action today demonstrates the absolute disdain Republicans have for working Missourians,” said House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat, in a Thursday statement.

She suggested the move to dismantle worker protections could prompt a move to shield future ballot measures from legislative interference.

“But in stripping workers of their legal right to earned sick leave, the governor and his allies have probably guaranteed this issue will be back on the ballot next year as a constitutional amendment that will place worker protections beyond their reach,” Aune said.

Since Proposition A changed state law but not the state constitution, lawmakers had the authority to rewrite it. To get HB 567 across the finish line, Republican senators resorted to extraordinary procedural measures, breaking a Democratic filibuster to force a vote on the bill in the final hectic days of the legislative session.

Despite the Missouri Supreme Court upholding Proposition A election results, the business community pressured lawmakers to forestall its implementation. The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry suggested that rewriting the sick leave provisions would give employers flexibility to “tailor workplace policies” to meet the needs of their workforce.

Kara Corches, president and CEO of the Missouri Chamber, celebrated the rewritten measure in a news release Thursday, calling mandatory paid sick leave a “job killer.”

“Missouri employers value their employees and recognize the importance of offering competitive wages and benefits, but one-size-fits-all mandates threaten growth,” Corches said.

As approved by voters, the earned sick leave provision did not apply to government employees, retail or service workers whose employers make less than $500,000 a year, people who are incarcerated, golf caddies, and babysitters, among others.

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