By Amanda Lubinski
ALubinski@cherryroad.com
Voters in Missouri will decide if they want to increase the state’s minimum wage and let employees earn paid sick time by voting on Proposition A.
What’s included in Prop A
If Prop A is approved, minimum wage would gradually increase. It would move from the current $12.30 per hour to $13.75 per hour on Jan. 1, 2025, then to $15 an hour in January 2026. After that, the wage would be adjusted annually each January based on the Consumer Price Index. Public employers of governments, school districts, other educational institutions and political subdivisions would be excluded.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology compiled a metric and defined a “living wage” as the amount “an individual in a household must earn to support themselves and/or their family, working full-time, or 2080 hours per year.” In Kansas City, according to MIT, that wage is $21.70 per hour for a single adult without children, $45.94 for a single adult with two children and $40.01 for two adults with two children.
Working full time, a person making the state’s current minimum wage earns $492 per week, or $25,584 annually, before taxes.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, if Prop A passes, about 900,000 workers would be impacted.
Proposition A would also mandate employers provide one hour of paid sick time for each 30 hours worked. If Prop A passes, the paid sick leave mandate would kick in May 1, 2025.
This paid sick leave would not apply to several groups of employees including those working for a retail or service business that makes less than $500,000 annually; people employed on an intermittent basis like news carriers, golf caddies and babysitters; or people who are incarcerated.
If passed, according to Missouri Independent, more than 700,000 Missouri workers who currently do not have it, would earn paid sick leave. If passed Missouri would join 18 other states and Washington, D.C., in requiring paid sick leave.
Those for and against
Those opposed to Prop A include the state chamber of commerce and some local candidates for state House and Senate seats. Candidates who told the Courier-Tribune they oppose Prop A include Republican Mike Jones, running in House District 15; Republican Chris Lonsdale, running in House District 38; and Republican Josh Hurlbert, running in House District 8.
Kara Corches,CEO of Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the chamber will always oppose new business mandates.
Opponent criticisms include passage would drive inflation up and put unfair mandates on already-struggling businesses and would lead to a dwindling job market.
“We believe business owners know best how to run their own companies, and the government should stay out of the way,” wrote Corches in an op-ed to the Courier-Tribune.
Prop A is supported by a variety of workers’ advocacy groups, unions and civil rights organizations, the League of Women Voters of Missouri as well as more than 500 business leaders and owners who are part of the Business for Fair Minimum Wage campaign. Local candidates for state House and Senate seats who told the Courier-Tribune they support Prop A include Democrat Jim Bates, seeking election to Senate District 21; Democrat Maggie Nurrenbern, running for Senate District 17; Democrat Sandy Van Wagner, running for House District 8; Democrat Gloria Young, running in House District 16; Democrat Ken Jamison, running for state House District 15; Democrat Shirley Mata, running for House District 17; and Democrat Marty Jacobs, running for House District 38. Republican Bill Allen said voters seem to be in favor of the effort and he supports their views and will support the will of the people.
The campaign in support of Prop A, Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, raised more than $5 million and collected 210,000 signatures to have the measure placed on the statewide ballot.
“It’s the workers earning some of the lowest wages who face the starkest choices,” the KC Media Collective reports Richard Von Glahn, campaign manager for Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, as saying. “What do parents do if staying home to care for a child means missing a paycheck?”
