
January 29, 2025 - Associated Industries of Missouri today hosted a virtual meeting with more than 150 business leaders and human resource professionals from across the state and asked them to give their honest opinions about potential changes to the minimum wage hike and mandatory paid sick leave and paid domestic violence leave provisions enacted by voters in Proposition A.
AIM Chairman of the Board Steven Burger and AIM president and CEO Ray McCarty hosted the meeting.
McCarty opened by giving an overview of Proposition A and explained the vote by which the proposition passed was a bit misleading. Although the measure passed 57.6% - 42.4% statewide, it was actually defeated in 87 of Missouri's 114 counties. The most populous counties carried the state with overwhelming approval in those counties that overcame the negative votes in other parts of the state.
An overview of the lawsuit filed against the measure was provided. Oral arguments before the Missouri Supreme Court are scheduled for March 12, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. The lawsuit alleges the measure violated the single subject requirement of the Missouri Constitution and that there were several other legal flaws with the election.
McCarty explained the main purpose of the meeting was to solicit ideas for changes to the minimum wage, paid sick leave, and paid domestic violence provisions contained in Prop A. For each question, we asked the business leaders and HR professionals to tell us whether they supported each change or not, or if the change did not apply to their business. Here are the results:
MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE (118 respondents)
Postpone $15 minimum wage to 1/1/27?
Support: 56%, Do not support: 9%, Does not apply: 35%
Provide exception to minimum wage for workers under 18 years of age:
Support: 46%, Do not support: 11%, Does not apply: 43%
Eliminate future automatic inflation increases in minimum wage:
Support: 71%, Do not support: 18%, Does not apply: 11%
PAID SICK LEAVE (119 respondents)
Completely repeal paid sick leave requirements:
Support: 83%, Do not support: 10%, Does not apply: 7%
Change $500,000 exemption for retail and service businesses to $10m exemption for any type of business:
Support: 46%, Do not support: 9%, Does not apply: 45%
Remove all provisions not appearing on the ballot (i.e. only require one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked with no restrictions):
Support: 81%, Do not support: 17%, Does not apply: 2%
Change to one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked:
Support: 71%, Do not support: 23%, Does not apply: 6%
Allow employers to have sick leave policies and enforce those policies to prevent abuse:
Support: 96%, Do not support: 3%, Does not apply: 1%
Eliminate the specific section allowing lawsuits against employers:
Support: 96%, Do not support: 3%, Does not apply: 1%
Remove carryover of leave from one year to next:
Support: 73%, Do not support: 15%, Does not apply: 12%
Eliminate leave due to government shutdown:
Support: 76%, Do not support: 9%, Does not apply: 15%
PAID DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LEAVE (116 respondents)
Completely repeal paid domestic violence leave requirement because it did not appear on the ballot:
Support: 78%, Do not support: 19%, Does not apply: 3%
These results will help guide us as we work with other business organizations and legislators on legislation this session. We thank everyone that participated in the virtual meeting today and will provide further updates as needed.
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