The Kansas City Star’s endorsement on Missouri Proposition A raising the minimum wage | Opinion

Here is our endorsement on Missouri ballot issue Proposition A for the general election. For more information about the Nov. 5 election, check out our Voter Guide, a collaboration between The Kansas City Star and the KC Media Collective.

Proposition A in Missouri would require most of the state’s employers to pay a minimum wage of $13.75 an hour next year, and $15.00 an hour in 2026. After that, the wage would be adjusted based on the Consumer Price Index.

We recommend a yes vote. Missouri’s current minimum wage is $12.30 an hour.

Crucially, Proposition A would also require employers with 15 or more workers to provide paid sick leave to their workers. Employees would earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 56 hours per year.

Workers in businesses with 15 or fewer employees would earn an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, with a 40-hour annual limit (unless the employer offered more).

Sick leave accruals would begin in May of 2025.

The paid sick leave proposal is extraordinarily important. Workers and families routinely struggle with providing care for a sick child or parent — or themselves. Taking a day from work to see a doctor can cost a worker a day’s wages or more.

Many simply can’t afford to lose that much money. Medical conditions go untreated. Minor sickness can become a health crisis, often for those least able to afford a diminished paycheck.

“It affects the foot soldiers,” one-time fast-food worker Fran Marion told us in an interview.

But it isn’t just a problem for employees. Sick workers who can’t take time off bring their illnesses into the workplace at the risk of infecting others, threatening efficiency. That’s a concern for business owners as well as employees.

Getting sick is a fact of life. Proposition A is at least a small step in helping workers cope with the inevitable, without risking food on the table, or rent. The plan is fair and workable. Standing alone, it would merit approval by voters.

But it’s coupled with the minimum wage hike, which is also essential for the state’s workers and Missouri’s economy. The state’s current minimum wage, over a 40-hour week, pays an employee $492. That’s far from a livable wage for a single person, let alone a family.

Some businesses — not all — say the higher wage and paid sick leave requirements would force them to reduce payrolls. Nonsense. We heard the same scare tactics In 2018, when Missouri voters raised the minimum wage at the ballot box.

Today, the state’s unemployment rate is 3.9%, below the national average. A modest salary bump for the state’s lowest-paid private employees should not put anyone out of business.

Proposition A has some flaws. It doesn’t include government workers, including teachers. Since it’s a change in law, not the state constitution, lawmakers can ignore the will of the voters (as is their habit) and change the plan.

On the whole, however, Proposition A would make Missouri healthier and provide a more stable workforce. We think voters should say yes.

This story was originally published October 10, 2024 at 5:06 AM.