Missouri restaurant group urges changes to Proposition A, HB 546 citing costs for small operations

The Missouri Restaurant Association told a legislative committee in public testimony that changes are needed to Proposition A and companion bill HB 546 to protect small restaurants from what it called onerous costs and regulatory complexity.

"I represent the Missouri Restaurant Association. We have over 12,000 restaurant operators across our state," said Buddy Law, chief executive officer of the association, urging amendments that would exempt many small and seasonal businesses from parts of the ballot measure and the bill. Law recommended defining a small business as one with 50 or fewer employees for the purposes of the sick-leave requirement and keeping the seasonal exemption for businesses operating 26 weeks or less.

The association proposed several other changes, including a gross-sales-based small-business threshold ("less than 10,000,000 in gross annual sales"), eliminating a requirement to carry accrued sick pay for up to nine months after an employee leaves, limiting sick‑pay coverage to the employee rather than family members, creating a training‑wage provision for workers aged 16 to 20 and adding a "right to cure" to allow employers to correct compliance problems before fines. "Proposition a is written is counterproductive to fostering business growth and employee retention in Missouri," Law said.

A small business owner who opposed the measure said the paid‑sick‑time provisions could force employers with thin profit margins to pay for workers who are absent for weather‑related closures or other nonmedical reasons. "Without the requirement of a doctor's note with regard to the paid time off, what's to stop all our employees from just saying, 'oh, well, I'm sick today'?" the witness said, adding that some small firms operate on profit margins near 6 percent and face higher payroll taxes and workers' compensation costs if payroll rises.

Witnesses and representatives discussed how the measure would interact with tipped wages under Missouri law. Law said the state treats a tipped server wage as 50 percent of the minimum wage and that increases to the minimum wage will raise the base on which sick pay is calculated: "But what this does affect is now we'll have to pay sick pay on the $15 an hour, which was simply not a payroll expense prior to this."

Representatives asked about the labor market and campaign backing for the initiative. Representative Kimball asked whether restaurants are seeing help‑wanted signs; Law said there is a shortage of employees and that multiple labor‑market changes, including the gig economy, have affected hiring. Representative Butts asked whether the initiative campaign was grassroots or driven by well‑funded interests; the exchange noted participation by groups such as Jobs with Justice and SEIU but included competing views about campaign resources.

Law provided an illustrative estimate during his testimony that a casual dining restaurant with about 40 employees in a rural community could face more than $50,000 in additional payroll and related tax expense under the proposition, and he said the association's proposals are intended to "chip away at the 8 pages of regulation" in the ballot language to make compliance feasible statewide.

No formal committee vote was recorded in the provided testimony. Law said the association has circulated a white paper to members with its recommendations but was not yet certain whether that paper had been publicly filed with the committee.