UPDATE: A group of business organizations has filed a petition with the Missouri Supreme Court challenging the validity of Proposition A, a November 2024 ballot measure that creates a statewide paid sick and safe time law effective May 1, 2025.

In the November 5, 2024 election, Missourians appear to have voted in favor of Proposition A to create a new statewide paid sick and safe time (“paid sick time”) law that would become operative on May 1, 2025 (along with increases to the state minimum wage).¹ Although the results will not be certified by the Missouri Secretary of State until early December,² and notwithstanding various news outlets reporting about potential challenges to the ballot measure’s legality,³ the following highlights some key information about the anticipated law.

Covered Employers & Employees. The law will apply to all employers, though different standards will apply depending on whether an employer has 15 or more, or 14 or fewer (“small employers”), employees in Missouri on the payroll for some portion of a working day in 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding year.

Generally, the law applies to an individual employed in Missouri, but contains numerous exceptions (some of which are more unique among paid sick time laws):

• Individuals who are not employees and are voluntarily engaged in the activities of an educational, charitable, religious, or nonprofit organization;
• Individuals standing in loco parentis to foster children in their care;
• Individuals employed for less than four months in any year in a resident or day camp for children or youth, or individuals employed by an educational conference center operated by an educational, charitable or not-for-profit organization;
• Individuals engaged in the activities of an educational organization where employment is in lieu of paying tuition, housing or other educational fees or where the individual’s earnings are credited toward the payment thereof;
• Individuals employed on or about a private residence on an occasional basis for six hours or less on each occasion;
• Casual babysitters;
• Individuals employed by certain rail carriers (those subject to the U.S. Code tit. 49, subtit. VI, pt. A: 49 U.S.C. §§ 10101 et seq.);
• Individuals employed on a casual or intermittent basis as a golf caddy, newspaper carrier, or similar occupation;
• Individuals employed by a retail or service business whose annual gross volume sales made or business done is less than $500,000;
• Incarcerated criminal offenders, including those who provide labor or services at the correctional facility; and
• Employees connected with the publication of any weekly, semiweekly, or daily newspaper with a circulation of less than 4,000, most of which is within the county where published or neighboring counties.

Additionally, there will be a temporary exemption for employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in effect as of November 5, 2024, i.e., the law will not apply until the CBA expires and the exemption will not continue simply because the CBA is renewed, extended, amended, or modified after November 5, 2024.

Covered Uses & Family Members. Under the law, employees can use leave for themselves or to care for or assist family members – generally defined as a child, grandchild, grandparent, parent, sibling, spouse, along with an individual with whom the employee is in a continuing social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature, and a person for whom the employee is responsible for providing or arranging health or safety-related care – for the following “sick,” “safe,” and “other” reasons:

• Mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition;
• Need for medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition;
• Need for preventative medical care;
• If the employee or their family member is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking:
  
  • Medical attention needed to recover from physical or psychological injury;
  • Services from a victim services organization;
  • Psychological or other counseling;
  • Relocation or taking steps to secure an existing home; and
  • Legal services, including preparing for or participating in any civil or criminal legal proceeding.
• Closure of employee’s place of business by order of a public official due to a public health emergency;
• Care for a child whose school or place of care has been closed by order of a public official due to a public health emergency; and
• Health authorities having jurisdiction or a health care provider determining that the employee’s or family member’s presence in the community may jeopardize others’ health because of the individual’s exposure to a communicable disease, whether or not the individual has actually contracted the communicable disease.

The law does not allow employers to impose a waiting period before employees can use paid sick time; once an employee accrues leave, they can use it.  Employees can use leave 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.

Accrual, Carryover & Use Caps and Frontloading. Employers with a paid leave policy, such as a PTO policy, who make available an amount of paid leave sufficient to meet the law’s requirements that employees may use for the same purposes and under the same conditions as the law requires need not provide additional paid sick time.

Otherwise, when employment begins or on May 1, 2025 – whichever is later – employees must accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. The law assumes that overtime-exempt executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales employees work a 40-hour-per-week schedule, but if their typical workweek involves fewer than 40 hours they accrue leave according to their normal schedule.

The law is silent concerning whether employers can cap annual or overall accrual. However, the law does allow small employers to limit annual use to 40 hours, and other employers can limit annual use to 56 hours. It also allows employers to limit carryover from year to year to 80 hours.

The law does not expressly allow employers to frontload a specific number of paid sick time hours annually in order to avoid carryover requirements. As written, the only way to avoid carryover is to cash out unused leave at year-end, and then at the beginning of the next year provide the employee an amount of leave that meets or exceeds the law’s requirements. Given the law is silent on annual accrual caps, however, it remains to be seen what exactly that “frontload” number might be.

Requesting & Documenting Leave. Employers must provide leave upon an employee’s request, which may be made orally, in writing, electronically, or by any other means acceptable to the employer. When possible, the request must include the absence’s expected duration. For foreseeable absences, employees must make a good-faith effort to provide advance notice, and must make a reasonable effort to schedule leave use in a manner that does not unduly disrupt the employer’s operations. For unforeseeable absences, employers can require employees to provide notice as soon as practicable. If an employer chooses to require such notice for unforeseeable absences, it must provide a written policy explaining those procedures. If employers do not provide employees a copy of the policy, they cannot deny leave use due to noncompliance with the policy.

When employees use leave on three or more consecutive workdays, employers may require them to provide “reasonable” documentation that they used leave for a covered reason. The law provides examples of what is reasonable for “sick” and “safe” absences:

• Sick Time: Documentation signed by a heath care professional indicating that leave is necessary.
• Safe Time: One of the following types of documentation selected by the employee:
  
  • A police report indicating that the individual was a victim;
  • A written statement from an employee or a victim service provider’s agent affirming that the individual is or was receiving services;
  • Documentation signed by a health care professional;
  • A court document indicating that the individual is or was involved in a legal action;
  • A written statement from the employee affirming that they are taking or took leave for a covered reason.

The law does not address the types of reasonable documentation that can be required for the “other” uses of paid sick time (e.g., school closures).

Under the law, employers cannot require disclosure of the details relating to an employee's or family member’s health information, domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking as a condition of providing leave. Employers also cannot require the documentation to explain the nature of the illness, details of the underlying health needs, or the details of the domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, unless a law otherwise requires. Additionally, any health or safety information they possess must be kept on a separate form and in a separate file from other personnel information, treated as confidential medical records, and not disclosed except to the affected employee or with their express permission.

Rate of Pay. When employees use leave, they must be paid their same hourly rate, with the same benefits – including health care benefits – that the employee typical earns, which cannot be less than the state minimum wage. For hourly employees, this is their hourly rate. For salaried employees – exempt or nonexempt – employers must divide wages they earned in the previous pay period by hours worked in that previous pay period. For employees who are paid on a commission basis – whether base wage plus commission or commission only – the same hourly rate is the greater of their base wage or the state minimum wage. For employees paid on a 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. For employees with multiple hourly rates, employers can use either the rate-in-effect or weighted average method (for the previous pay period), but must use a consistent method for each employee throughout a year. Tip-earning employees must be paid the higher of their base rate or the state minimum wage. Although the law contains numerous provisions concerning how employees must be paid, it is silent concerning when they must be paid when they use leave.

Transferred, Terminated & Rehired Employees. When employees transfer to a separate division, entity, or location of the employer, they retain all paid sick time accrued and can use it in accordance with the law. When a different employer succeeds or takes the place of an existing employer, employees retain all leave accrued and can use it in accordance with the law. When employment ends, employers need not pay out unused leave, but must reinstate that leave should they rehire the employee within nine months of separation.

Employer Notice, Posting & Recordkeeping. Within 14 calendar days of employment beginning or on April 15, 2025 – whichever is later – employers must provide written notice of the following on a single piece of paper, at least 8.5 x 11 inches, in no less than 14-point font:

• Beginning May 1, 2025, employees accrue and are entitled to earned paid sick time at the rate of one hour of earned paid sick time for every 30 hours of work, and may use earned paid sick time, subject to the law’s limits and terms;
• Employers cannot retaliate against employees who request or use earned paid sick time;
• Employees have the right to bring a lawsuit if earned paid sick time is denied or they are retaliated against for exercising their rights under the law; and
• Contact information for the state labor department.

Beginning April 15, 2025 – if made available by the state labor department – employers must conspicuously display a poster in an accessible place in each establishment that contains the information required in the time-of-hiring notice.

For at least three years, employers must retain – and allow the state labor department access to – records documenting hours worked and earned paid sick time taken by employees. However, the law does not require that information to be included on employee wage statements. 

Prohibitions, Penalties & Damages. Under the law, employers cannot require, as a condition of taking paid sick time, that employees search for or find a replacement worker to cover the hours during which they use leave. An absence control policy cannot count statutory paid sick time as an absence that may lead to or result in discipline, discharge, demotion, suspension, or any other adverse action.

An employer or any other person cannot interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any right protected under the law. An employer cannot retaliate or discriminate against an employee or former employee because they exercised rights protected under the law. These protections apply equally to any individual who mistakenly but in good faith alleges a violation of the law. Finally, employers and employees cannot waive the law’s rights; any such waiver is void.

Employees can either file a complaint with the Missouri Department of Labor or through a private lawsuit. If they pursue the latter, it must be filed within three calendar years after the violation occurred and, if they prevail, employees can obtain appropriate legal or equitable relief, a permanent or temporary injunction, the value of any unpaid earned sick time plus actual damages, liquidated damages of twice the amount of any unpaid earned sick time, along with reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. For willful violations, the law provides for criminal liability (an infraction for notice and posting violations, a class C misdemeanor for other violations) and the possibility of a fine up to $500 per day for each day a violation continues.

Next Steps. Less than half a year is not much time for the state labor department to clarify certain issues the law addresses and fill gaps via formal rulemaking or informal FAQs where it is silent. Having a more complete law is essential for employers, particularly those that potentially need to harmonize – to the extent possible – Missouri’s requirements with similar provisions in state and local laws across the country. Therefore, employers should monitor the department’s website. They should also keep in contact with knowledgeable counsel to ensure they have not missed any relevant updates connected to the law or, potentially, a legal challenge to the law.