Missouri voters expanded paid sick leave. The GOP undid it, and the repeal just took effect

Andi Phillips speaks at a rally on the Missouri Capitol steps on May 15 (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent)

Andi Phillips has never really had the option of being sick.

A server at a Springfield-area restaurant, the single mother of four finally has a job allowing her to financially support her family. But if she or one of her children falls ill, that financial security goes out the window.

“When you miss a shift, that’s a big deal,” she said. “You lose that money and that could be an entire bill.”

That’s one of the myriad reasons she was among the 58% of Missouri voters last year who supported Proposition A, an initiative petition that vastly expanded access to paid sick leave.

Workers across the state began accruing the new paid sick leave benefits in May.

“It was a huge relief to know that there was going to be that cushion,” she said, “and that protection.”

But it all came to an end Thursday.

That’s when the Republican-backed repeal of the law — passed in May and signed by Gov. Mike Kehoe in July — officially went into effect.

“It’s just sickening and insulting to every worker in our state,” Phillips said of the repeal.

The repeal has set off an avalanche of reactions, with activists pondering another ballot push next year to place the paid sick leave law in the state constitution. Others are pushing a constitutional amendment limiting the legislature’s power to overturn the will of the voters.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers may try to get out in front of any response with legislation making it harder for voters to amend the state constitution.

“This has shown Missourians just how out of touch our legislature is with the way the economy works for most families and their vision of how democracy should work in this state,” said Richard Von Glahn, policy director for Missouri Jobs with Justice, the organization that helped lead the campaign for the paid sick leave law.

“And so it’s made it pretty clear to most Missourians,” he added, “that there’s a number of things that need to be fixed. At this point, we’re just trying to decide what comes first and what’s the path forward.”

Under Proposition A, workers at businesses with receipts greater than $500,000 a year could accrue at least one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. Workers could earn up to 40 hours of leave a year at smaller businesses and 56 hours at larger companies.

The measure made sick leave guaranteed for 728,000 workers who lacked it statewide, or over 1 in 3 Missouri workers, according to an analysis from the progressive nonprofit the Missouri Budget Project.

Paid sick leave laws covering private employers have been enacted in 18 states, with voters in Nebraska and Alaska joining Missouri in November in approving the new benefits.

Missouri is the first state to fully repeal a voter-approved paid sick leave law.

At a recent speech in Springfield, Kehoe panned Proposition A, denying it was a grassroots campaign because it received campaign contributions from out-of-state organizations. He urged workers who are upset with the lack of paid sick leave to  find another job.

“If an employee doesn’t feel like they’re getting the right benefit,” he said, “there’s a business down the street that might have a better package for them, and that’s how the process should work.”

The push for repeal was backed by business groups like the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who called the mandated 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,” Kara Corches, president and CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, when the repeal was signed into law.

But that’s simply not true, said Gina Meyer, owner of J E Meyer Construction Co.

Meyer currently has four full-time employees, and even though Proposition A is officially repealed, she has no intention of rolling back her workers’ newly acquired benefits.

“It’s a completely false narrative,” Meyer said. “You don’t have to choose between people and profits.”

Businesses benefit by having healthy workers, Meyer said. And implementing the law has not had any negative impact at all on her business. When she learned lawmakers were planning a repeal, she knew immediately that she would not follow suit.

“It never occurred to me that I would take away this benefit from my employees,” she said. “Because my employees are equal partners in my company. I mean, you can’t have one without the other.”

Von Glahn said he’s hearing from employers around the state reacting just like Meyer.

“I have the sense that a lot of businesses are not necessarily pulling back these benefits,” he said. “They don’t want to be in the position of telling workers, ‘Well, you know, now that I don’t have to treat you in this more dignified way, I’m not going to.’ That’s a very hard message for an employer to deliver.”

Missouri Jobs With Justice is considering another initiative petition next year, Von Glahn said, putting sick leave into the state constitution — a move that would make it much harder for lawmakers to reverse.

And he said the organization is also watching another initiative petition campaign, called Respect Missouri Voters, which is hoping to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot making it harder for the legislature to overturn voter-approved laws.

At the same time, the legislature is likely to reconvene next month to redraw Missouri’s congressional maps and debate a constitutional amendment targeting the initiative petition process. The goal of the new amendment would be to make it much harder for voters to change the state constitution.

As for Phillips, she’s not sure what her employer will do now that the law has been repealed. But she says she’s furious that lawmakers would overturn the will of the voters to strip benefits from workers.

“This should scare the hell out of every voter,” she said. “We voted for this. If they can look us in the eyes and tell us we’re not worthy, we should be scared. And pissed off.”

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com.