If Pain, Yes Gain – Part 130: Missouri Supreme Court Maintains State Paid Sick Time Law; May 1, 2025 Effective Date Remains – For Now

What You Need to Know:

• After weeks of anticipation and brewing legal challenges to the impending Missouri Earned Paid Sick Time Law, which is still scheduled to go into effect tomorrow, May 1, 2025, employers received some clarity yesterday from the Missouri Supreme Court. However, with the effective date mere hours away, uncertainty surrounding the law remains in the form of pending legislation from the State legislature.
• The Missouri Supreme Court’s April 29^th decision rejected business groups’ challenges and upheld the voter-approved paid sick time law from November 2024, finding that (i) the contestants failed to meet their burden showing election irregularity and (ii) the Court lacked jurisdiction over the contestants’ challenges alleging that the ballot impermissibly did not have a single subject and clear title as required by the Missouri Constitution.
• Although the Missouri Supreme Court case has been decided, there is still another pending legal challenge to the Missouri sick time mandate, specifically from the State legislature. Here is the current status of the proposed legislation seeking to stop the mandate:
  • On March 13, 2025, the Missouri House of Representatives passed a bill (HB 567) that, if enacted, would repeal the paid sick time portion of the November 2024 ballot initiative. The bill has been successfully filibustered multiple times in the Missouri Senate – for now. The Missouri legislative session ends in less than three weeks, with the ultimate fate of the Missouri Earned Paid Sick Time Law remaining unclear as the calendar turns to May.
• In addition to the above legal challenges, April 2025 has seen the release of Missouri Earned Paid Sick Time FAQs from the Missouri Department of Labor & Industrial Relations (“Missouri DOL”), and an employer notice and posting obligation come to pass. More on both of these developments below.
• Under the Missouri Earned Paid Sick Time Law employees can use available paid sick time up to 56 hours per year for employers with 15 or more employees and 40 hours per year for employers with fewer than 15 employees. It does not appear that there is a cap on how much paid sick time an employee may accrue in a year.
• Missouri was joined by Alaska and Nebraska in passing a statewide paid sick leave law via ballot initiative in November 2024. Those laws go into effect later this year–(a) Alaska – effective July 1, 2025; (b) Nebraska – effective October 1, 2025. See our prior alert for more information on the Missouri, Alaska and Nebraska laws.

Notice and Posting.

Missouri employers were required to provide a notice regarding the paid sick time law to their existing Missouri employees by April 15, 2025, and to all new hires thereafter. The notice must be provided to employees on a single piece of paper, at least 8.5 x 11, in no less than 14-point font. Additionally, also beginning April 15, employers were required to display a paid sick time poster in a conspicuous and accessible place in each Missouri establishment. Here is a link to the Missouri DOL’s model poster.

FAQs.

As noted above, the Missouri DOL recently published FAQs on the Earned Paid Sick Time Law, the first administrative guidance interpreting the law, available here. Generally, the FAQs set forth requirements regarding employer coverage, employee coverage, accrual, the definition of the benefit year, year-end carryover, usage (including reasons for use), covered family members, rate of pay, recordkeeping, notice and posting, and penalties for violations.

Key FAQs provide the following insights and reminders:

Employee Threshold: The Missouri paid sick time law applies broadly to all private employers with at least one employee in Missouri with a few niche exceptions. While the law allows for reduced paid sick time obligations for “small businesses,” the threshold to qualify is employing fewer than 15 employees, and even then the majority of the paid sick time standards still apply. An employer meets the 15-employee threshold (i.e., it is not a “small business”) if it employs 15 or more employees. Notably, in counting the number of employees, employers must include full-time, part-time, and temporary employees.

Accrual and Year-End Carryover: Accrual begins on May 1, 2025, or upon commencement of the employee’s employment, whichever is later. Eligible employees must accrue at least one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. There is no cap on accrual. Up to 80 hours of accrued, unused paid sick time must be carried over from year to year. Alternatively, an employer may pay out up to 80 hours of an employee’s accrued, unused paid sick time at the end of the benefit year and frontload the employee’s paid sick time at the beginning of the following benefit year for immediate use.

Annual Usage Cap: Regardless of the amount of paid sick time accrued or carried over, an employer with 15 or more employees is not required to permit an employee to use more than 56 hours of paid sick time in a benefit year. Small businesses (employers with fewer than 15 employees) may limit the use to 40 hours of paid sick time per benefit year.

Frontloading: An employer may provide the total amount of paid sick time at the beginning of the benefit year, but frontloading does not eliminate year-end carryover obligations unless the employer pays out the employee’s earned, unused paid sick time at the end of the benefit year.

Rate of Pay: The FAQs also clarify the rate of pay for employees who earn multiple hourly rates of pay, salaried employees, employees who receive piece rates, and tipped employees.

Recordkeeping: Employers must retain records that document the hours worked and paid sick time used by employees for not less than 3 years. These records shall be available to the Missouri DOL with appropriate notice and at a mutually agreeable time.

Next Steps: The Missouri Earned Paid Sick Time Law begins tomorrow, May 1, 2025.  here are some next steps for employers to consider:

• Stay current on the status of the pending legislative challenge to the Missouri Earned Paid Sick Time Law, and develop a plan for how to address potential changes in the status of the law, including possible amendments or a repeal.
• Review existing sick leave or PTO policies and practices, and determine whether to implement new policies and practices or revise existing policies and practices to ensure compliance with the Missouri law while doing the same for any related attendance, conduct, anti-retaliation, and discipline policies and practices.
• Train supervisory and managerial employees, as well as HR, on the new requirements.
• Monitor the Missouri DOL website for the release of additional administrative guidance, updated FAQs, and potential rulemaking on employers’ paid sick leave compliance obligations.

With the paid leave landscape continuing to expand and grow in complexity, companies should reach out to their favorite Seyfarth attorney for solutions and recommendations on addressing compliance with nationwide paid leave requirements. To stay up-to-date on paid leave developments in Missouri and beyond, click here to sign up for Seyfarth’s Paid Sick Leave mailing list. Companies interested in Seyfarth’s paid sick leave laws survey should reach out to paidleave@seyfarth.com.

Seyfarth Shaw LLP provides this information as a service to clients and other friends for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or relied on as legal advice or to create a lawyer-client relationship. Readers should not act upon this information without seeking advice from their professional advisers.