Lawmakers Should Listen to Voters on Prop A Sick Leave Protections
Date Posted: March 31, 2025
Posted In: Discussion,
From Kansas City Star: Before trotting off to their legislative spring break, some members of the Missouri House felt it was important to thumb their noses at their constituents and voted to overturn Missouri’s Proposition A — something that more than 57% of us just passed last November. Their leader, Speaker Jon Patterson, felt compelled to pen a defense of this action in The Star. Perhaps that is because just three months ago he said, “I don’t favor delaying implementation.” Now he owes Missouri and his constituents who overwhelmingly approved Prop A an explanation for his change in perspective.
Proposition A was a simple solution to a simple problem. We know that everyone gets sick through no fault of their own. And while most professional employees have access to paid sick days, hundreds of thousands of Missouri’s essential workers — construction workers, retail, food preparation and service, nursing home aides and childcare workers — do not. Prop A allows those workers, who are real drivers of our economy, an opportunity to earn paid sick time at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked, so they have the same opportunity to care for themselves or their families that their bosses have. In doing so, it keeps them, their workplaces and the broader public healthier and more productive.
More than 1.6 million Missourians — more than who voted to reelect Sen. Josh Hawley — voted for Prop A. It passed in 52 Democratic House districts and 54 Republican House districts, including Patterson’s. It passed in urban, suburban and rural counties across the state.
H.B. 567, passed by the Missouri House, is not a fix or a compromise. It is a complete repeal of the opportunity for workers to earn paid sick time to care for their families. It should more properly be called the “Making You Go to Work While Sick Act.” Speaker Patterson suggests it is the architects of Prop A to blame for this, but the reality was revealed in January, when the CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry said repealing the paid sick leave mandate was the priority goal of that institution. Patterson has twice canceled meetings he set up with his constituents on this issue.