Does Proposition A violate the Missouri Constitution? That’s what the State Supreme Court is now weighing.
The voter-passed initiative will raise Missouri’s minimum wage to $15 an hour next year and requires employers to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.
Attorney Marc Ellinger, arguing for Associated Industries of Missouri and other plaintiffs, said that Proposition A should be vacated because it contains more than one subject matter.
“The (Missouri) Constitution is very clear that a statutory initiative must have one subject expressed clearly in its title,” Ellinger told the high court. “Proposition A doesn’t have one subject clearly expressed in its title – it has two subjects.”
Attorney Andrew Crane with the Missouri Secretary of State’s office defended Prop A.
“The central measures of the act at issue are to increase the minimum wage and to increase the minimum amount of sick time, well, establish a minimum amount of sick leave that must be provided to employees by employers,” he said. “Those things pretty clearly relate to one subject, which is employee compensation.”
Proposition A passed in November with 57.57% of the vote. Meanwhile, legislation is moving through the legislature that would overturn the paid sick leave requirement and delay the $15 an hour minimum wage until 2028. Several other bills aiming to take similar measures have also been filed.
A ruling will be made at a later date.
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