Missouri House Speaker Jon Patterson: Missouri small businesses need lawmakers to amend Prop A's sick leave

Opinion Editorial by Speaker Jon Patterson, originally appearing in The Kansas City Star

In last year’s November general election, Missouri residents went to the polls and voted for Proposition A, a referendum that increased the state minimum wage to $15 per hour and imposed new requirements for businesses to provide paid sick leave for their employees. With 57% of the vote, Missourians approved the measure, parts of which go into effect on May 1. The Missouri House of Representatives recently passed House Bill 567, sponsored by state Rep. Sherri Gallick of Cass County. This bill, if signed into law, would leave the $15 per hour minimum wage in place, but remove the paid sick leave mandates.

Given the strong support that the proposition received, this was not something that was done without careful consideration. As businesses are preparing to comply with the new law, it has become clear that Prop A mandates will be a heavy financial burden for many of them. This change will result in employees being let go, companies going out of business, and will make businesses think twice about opening in or relocating to Missouri. Prop A imposes the requirement that businesses give employees earned time off for paid sick leave, which can be used for illness, to receive medical care or help their family receive medical care. While these are noble goals, it is the administration of the sick leave guidelines that required legislative intervention.

Chaos ahead for workplaces

First, Prop A envisions that all employees will be able to use their sick time in minute-by-minute increments at the employee’s complete discretion. The statute specifically states that employees must be given paid sick time in “the smallest increment that the employer’s payroll system uses.” As a physician who has worked across many health care facilities, I know firsthand the chaos this will cause Missouri health care systems. A nurse in an intensive care unit taking care of critically ill patients will now be able to take sick leave at any time of the day, in as many minute increments as they choose. This is well and good for the employee, but what about the critically ill patients? Who will care for them? And what if multiple nurses take sick leave at the same time?

One would think that the drafters of Prop A would have included guidelines that would help employers deal with known, industry-specific or essential worker issues. To the contrary, the subsequent provisions severely hurt and, in some cases, add criminal penalties for trying to address the problems associated with instituting minute-by-minute sick leave. Secondly, Prop A adds a new crime to our statutes — the crime of not complying with Prop A. It states that any employer who “willfully” violates its mandates “shall be guilty of a Class C misdemeanor.” Who would be charged with the misdemeanor? The supervisor? The human resources director? The CEO? The owner of the company? Prop A is unclear on this, so nobody knows. It is especially ironic that liberal advocates who generally support the decriminalization of many actions are now the ones pushing for new crimes to be imposed. There is no irony, however, in the most devastating provision of Prop A, which dreams up a “civil cause of action” for employees to sue employers if they feel that the provisions of Prop A were not adequately given to them. This is likely to be the most potent deterrent to businesses contemplating doing business in Missouri. Lastly, another provision of Prop A that received very little attention was its inexplicable exemption for state and local governments, as well as school districts. There is no good reason to think that an employee at Walmart should receive a minimum wage increase but not an employee of our Missouri schools.

Must be tempered by compromise

Rather than encourage state and local governments to set the example, Prop A fails to include government entities, and then — one must credit the authors of Prop A for their brazenness — gives government the job of policing Prop A. “A municipality, county, city, town, or village may adopt ordinances, rules, and regulations to investigate and ascertain compliance” with Prop A. This sets up the perverse scenario in which a governing body such as Jackson County — the same Jackson County that cannot fairly assess property taxes or even pass a budget — is now in charge of monitoring businesses and their compliance with Prop A. An even more problematic scenario arises when a person has two jobs in two different municipalities, resulting in different interpretations of the same laws. Again, sick leave benefits are a noble goal for any business. In fact, most businesses that can afford to do so are already offering these types of benefits. In our tight labor market, employers must compete for employees by offering competitive wage and benefit packages. Even companies already offering paid leave benefits to employees, especially those that do not differentiate type of leave, are going to have a very difficult time complying with Prop A requirements.

Missouri voters went to the polls and voted for Prop A. While the temptation to assert that voters did “not know what they were voting for” always remains, it is more likely that voters knew exactly what they were voting for: a minimum wage to rival the highest in the country and sick leave requirements for businesses. But these educated voters also knew that, as a statutory change, it could also be changed by statute and tempered by compromise. That is the position of the Republicans in the Missouri House. Ensure minimum wage requirements go into place without delay, but negotiate on sick leave mandates. There is nothing to stop different sick leave provisions being put into law. But Proposition A’s sick leave provisions are sure to kill job growth, thereby negatively impacting the people that it purported to be trying to help. This is why the legislature must pass House Bill 567 and promote economic growth and opportunity for Missouri business owners and works alike.

Missouri State Representative Jon Patterson, a Republican, represents District 30, which includes parts of Lee’s Summit. He serves as Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives.