1 day Ago By Jack Suntrup St. Louis Post-Dispatch
JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri Republicans are seeking to partially undo the new law voters approved in November to raise the minimum wage and require paid sick leave. The new law, which nearly 58% of Missouri voters supported in the November election, raised the state minimum wage to $13.75 an hour on Jan.
1. The minimum will increase to $15 an hour at the start of 2026. The law also requires certain employers to allow employees to begin accruing paid sick time off starting May 1.
But multiple Republican proposals would water down the new law. And one, filed Thursday by GOP state Rep.-elect Bryant Wolfin of Ste.
Genevieve, would repeal the entire law. Two other proposals seek to exempt some younger workers from the wage increases. A fourth would delay the increase to $15 an hour to 2028.
It also would weaken the paid-leave provision by requiring someone to work 32 hours, instead of 30 hours, to earn an hour of paid leave. A fifth measure, called the Entrepreneur Rights Act, would exempt seasonal and certain small businesses from the wage and sick leave requirements. “We want to make this a more welcoming state for businesses to open, and I think laws like this really deter people from starting things or taking things on,” said state Rep.
-elect Jeff Vernetti, a Republican from Camdenton who sponsored the Entrepreneur Rights Act. The new law already exempts employees in “a retail or service business whose annual gross volume sales made or business done is less than” $500,000 from the sick leave requirement. The moves to alter or repeal the new law open a second front for the measure’s opponents.
Republican-leaning groups such as the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry last month filed a petition with the Missouri Supreme Court to undo the Proposition A; the lawsuit was pending Friday. Vernetti said he wanted to file his legislation in case the lawsuit by business groups is unsuccessful. “These businesses aren’t big corporations that my bill is aimed to help.
It’s aimed to help small businesses that are not sitting on a mountain of cash,” Vernetti said. Democrats, who are in the legislative minority, are expected to fiercely oppose moves to weaken the new law. “For some folks to come down there and pretend, you know, that they know better than the people who sent them there is outrageous,” state Rep.
Raychel Proudie, a Ferguson Democrat, said in an interview last week. Vernetti, a former St. Louis sportscaster who has moved from the metro area, said that “if you take away St.
Louis and Kansas City, the majority of the counties and districts in the state, you know, didn’t pass it.” While the new law, Proposition A, passed in St. Louis and Kansas City, it also won in more than 20 counties outside of the two major cities.
The question’s support in some Republican-dominated areas could put numerous GOP legislators at odds with their voters. Counties where a majority of voters backed Proposition A included four counties in the Bootheel; Greene and Boone counties; Taney County, where entertainment capital Branson is located; numerous counties in the Kansas City area; and St. Charles, Jefferson and St.
Francois counties in the St. Louis region. “In my district, I think you saw the vote go the way that it did because we have so many small businesses, so many restaurants and so forth,” said state Rep.
Brian Seitz, R-Branson. “Being a tourist town, it costs a little bit more than some other areas to get a small house or an apartment.” But, Seitz said, “in the main, I would prefer individual businesses to set the salaries of their employees.
I think that actually is an incentive for individuals to work hard to achieve that higher level of compensation.” Seitz said a minimum wage “is not a wage by which you can purchase a house or a nice car and so forth. It’s an entry-level wage for a minimum skill set.
” Rep. Doug Clemens, D-St. Ann, said wages have not kept up with rising prices.
One of the measures would exempt workers younger than 20 from minimum wage increases in the law. Another bill, filed in the Senate, would allow minors to be paid $12.30 an hour.
“If you’re doing labor, you should be paid a living wage. Period. Doesn’t matter if you’re 16 or 65,” Clemens said.
Vernetti, who is looking to exempt seasonal and certain small businesses from the law, said there’s so many parts of the state where the “arbitrary mandates” will end up putting businesses out of business or result in passing along higher labor costs to consumers. Asked whether there was room for differentiation between small and larger businesses, Clemens said, “that’s a tough one. I honestly think that a business needs to be able to stand on its own, including paying its labor a living wage.
” The legislation is House Bill 546 ; House Bill 555 ; House Bill 625 ; House Bill 715 ; and Senate Bill 532 ..
