Missouri Prop A: $15 Minimum Wage and Paid Sick Leave Rules

Missouri’s Proposition A set the state minimum wage at $15.00 per hour as of January 1, 2026, and requires most private employers to let workers earn one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.¹ Voters approved the measure in November 2024, and both pieces are now in force. Future wage rates will adjust with inflation starting in 2027, and workers who are underpaid or denied sick time can sue for double the amount owed plus attorney’s fees.

The $15 Hourly Rate

Every covered employer in Missouri must pay at least $15.00 for each hour worked in 2026.¹ There is no small-business carve-out and no industry exception built into the rate itself. The $15.00 figure is the second step of a two-year phase-in; the rate was $13.75 during 2025 before jumping on January 1, 2026.

Tipped Workers

Tipped employees have a lower cash wage, but their total pay per hour still has to reach $15.00. Employers must pay a cash wage of at least 50 percent of the standard minimum — $7.50 per hour in 2026 — and then make up the difference if tips don’t bring the hourly total up to the full minimum.¹ If a slow shift leaves your base plus tips below $15.00 an hour, your employer owes you the shortfall for that pay period.

Automatic Increases Starting in 2027

Beginning January 1, 2027, the minimum wage will adjust each year based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Each September 30, the Director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations measures the CPI-W change from the prior July back to the July before that, rounds the result to the nearest five cents, and sets the next year’s rate.² The rate can go up or down with the index.

A 2025 bill that would have kept the $15.00 figure but removed the inflation adjustment passed the Missouri House and stalled in the Senate. The indexing is in place for now, but future sessions may take it up again.

How Paid Sick Time Accrues

Since May 1, 2025, covered employees earn one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.³ Accrual starts the first day you’re on the job, and you can use the time as soon as you earn it. There’s no tenure requirement.

The annual usage cap depends on employer size:

Employers with 15 or more employees must allow at least 56 hours of paid sick time per year.³
Employers with fewer than 15 employees must allow at least 40 hours per year.³

Unused hours can carry over, up to 80 hours into the next year, though the annual usage caps still apply. An employer can skip carryover by paying out unused time at year-end and frontloading the full annual accrual on January 1. Employers do not have to pay out accrued sick time when you leave the job.

What You Can Use Sick Time For

Paid sick time under Prop A isn’t limited to your own illness. Qualifying reasons include:

Your own physical or mental illness, injury, or preventive care, including checkups and vaccinations.
Care for a family member who is sick, injured, or getting preventive care. The statute defines family member broadly: children, parents, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, spouses, domestic partners, and anyone you’re in a continuing romantic or intimate relationship with.⁴
Needs related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, including medical care, counseling, legal proceedings, relocation, or other safety steps.
A closure of your workplace, or your child’s school or daycare, because of a declared public health emergency.

Notice and Documentation

When the need is foreseeable, you should give reasonable advance notice. When it isn’t, notify your employer as soon as practicable. Requests can be oral or written.⁴

Your employer cannot ask for documentation unless you use sick time for three or more consecutive days, and even then the request must be reasonable, not something unreasonably hard to get. An employer can never require you to find a replacement worker as a condition of taking leave.

Workers Who Aren’t Covered

Prop A reaches most private-sector workers in Missouri, but several categories fall outside both the wage floor and the sick leave right:⁴

Federal, state, and local government employers, including cities, counties, and school districts.
Volunteers for religious, charitable, educational, or nonprofit organizations who receive no compensation beyond meals, lodging, or expense reimbursement.
Executive, administrative, and professional employees who meet the salary and duties tests.
Outside salespeople who primarily work away from the employer’s place of business.
Seasonal camp counselors in counseling or programming roles.
Agricultural workers.

Salaried white-collar workers often assume the sick leave right applies to them. If your job meets one of the executive, administrative, or professional tests, it doesn’t.

If an Employer Underpays You or Denies Sick Time

A worker paid less than the minimum wage can sue for the unpaid wages plus liquidated damages equal to twice the shortfall.⁵ A $1,000 underpayment can translate into a $3,000 judgment. The court also awards reasonable attorney’s fees to a winning employee.

For sick leave specifically — denied leave, failed accrual, or unpaid time — workers can recover the unpaid benefits plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, with attorney’s fees available.⁴ Claims can be brought individually or as a collective action with other affected workers.

Retaliation is separately prohibited. An employer cannot fire, demote, cut hours, or otherwise punish a worker for using sick time, asking about pay, or filing a complaint.⁴ Retaliation claims generally carry their own damages on top of the underlying violation.

What Could Change

The 2025 House bill that would have repealed the paid sick leave provisions and stripped the wage inflation adjustment did not pass the Senate before the session ended. The $15.00 wage and the sick leave accrual rules remain fully enforceable in 2026, but similar legislation could return in future sessions, particularly against the sick leave provisions.

1
Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Minimum Wage
2
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 290.502 – Minimum Wage Rate
3
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 290.603 – Paid Sick Leave Required
4
Missouri Secretary of State. 2024-038 Statutory Measure
5
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 290.527 – Action for Underpayment of Wages