Missouri voters approved Proposition A, enacting a new statewide paid sick leave law that will take effect on May 1, 2025, barring any legal challenges or issues with certification of the official results by Dec. 10.
The new law applies to all private employers in Missouri. However, certain employees are excluded from coverage, including those engaged in educational, charitable, religious, or nonprofit activities; employees standing in loco parentis to foster children in their care; employees in retail or service businesses with annual gross sales below $500,000; and incarcerated criminal offenders.
Beginning May 1, 2025, eligible employees will accrue a minimum of one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Employers with at least 15 employees may limit employees to using 56 hours of paid sick time each year. All other employers may limit employees to using 40 hours of paid sick time annually.
Employers may provide paid sick time as it is accrued or front-load all the earned paid sick time that an employee is expected to accrue in a year at the beginning of the year.
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Missouri’s Paid Sick Leave Law Analyzed
SHRM via Jackson Lewis | Dec 2024
Proposition A - Paid Sick Time Benefits - FAQs
MO Department of Labor and Industrial Relations
Effective Date: 5/1/25
Law Articles
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.
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Under the law, employees may use PST for care, meaning care or treatment of a physical or mental illness, injury, or other health condition, or preventive care, of oneself or a family member. The law further allows employees to use PST in the case of a public health emergency where employees’ place of business or schools for employees’ children are closed, or to care for oneself or a family member due to a communicable disease. The law also provides PST to be used for safe leave to handle certain situations where an employee or employee’s family member has been a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
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Employers are not required to pay out unused sick leave at the end of the year but may choose to do so as part of their policy instead of allowing carryover. Notably, an employer does not have to pay an employee unused earned paid sick time at termination or separation from employment.
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Employers must display a notice in a prominent location at the workplace that informs employees of their rights under Proposition A. Employers will also be required to provide written notice about paid sick leave within 14 days of the commencement of employment or April 15, 2025 (whichever is later). Employers must maintain records documenting hours worked and earned paid sick time taken by employees for at least three years.
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