Missouri Fight Over Labor Laws Marks Rising Nationwide Tensions

A battle over voters’ ability to pass pro-worker policies via ballot initiatives in Missouri is the latest escalation of a coordinated push by partisan legislatures to heighten their power while hindering localities from expanding worker protections and rights.

Republican state lawmakers approved a measure Sept. 12 that will ask voters to decide next year if citizen-initiated constitutional amendments must get majority support in each of Missouri’s eight congressional districts to become law. Currently, ballot initiatives need only a simple majority.

The move mirrors those made by Republican leaders in Florida, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and elsewhere to tighten requirements for ballot initiatives, which citizens have used to bypass lawmakers who block popular public policies like minimum wage increases, paid leave, reproductive care services, and Medicaid expansion. And in some instances, like in Missouri, ballot initiatives are a key tool to counter legislators barring localities from setting stronger laws than the state.

“It’s a power grab to change the way we are able to use the initiative petition process,” said Caitlyn Adams, executive director of Missouri Jobs with Justice, a worker rights advocacy group. Citizens use it to “put a check on the legislative power,” she said.

The action in Missouri comes after lawmakers gutted a paid sick leave law and reversed key parts of a measure raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour—both of which voters approved last November by 58% of the vote.

Years earlier, state Republicans voided St. Louis’s wage law for exceeding limits, paving the way for advocates to put the minimum wage measure on last year’s ballot.

The measures in Florida, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah would either increase the threshold for passing constitutional amendments from a simple majority to 60% or impose stricter rules for placing an item on the ballot. Florida’s proposal for all signature gatherers for ballot initiatives to be residents of the state is being challenged in court.

Preemption Landscape

State preemption laws impact a wide range of other policy areas, including requirements for stable and predictable work schedules, heat-safety standards, particularly for farmers, and the regulation of gig economy workers like ride-share drivers.

They have also been subject to litigation.

In July, a Texas appeals court upheld a 2023 law to preempt local ordinances that the state doesn’t expressly permit, including rest break rules for construction workers that the cities of Austin and Dallas had on the books.

Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso sued, but the court found that the cities lacked standing as they “failed to allege a concrete and particularized actual or imminent injury arising from the act’s unconstitutional application to them.”

Texas Republicans and business groups defended the preemption law, saying it aims to simplify a patchwork of local regulations that hinder businesses and economic growth.

Business groups years earlier successfully challenged paid sick leave mandates in Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio.

Further east, the city of Miami Beach lost in court when challenging Florida’s local wage ban after the municipality enacted a higher wage floor in 2016.

The call for local autonomy is often a rallying cry among Republicans, but advocates see their preemption push as a contradiction.

“This is no longer about partisan philosophy because traditionally, conservatives have really lauded local government closest to the people. What they’re doing today, their actions today do not match that,” said Katie Belanger, a consultant at the Local Solutions Support Center, which advocates for local governing authority.

“It is becoming very clear that this is not about political theory,” she said. “This is about corporate profits and social conservatives closing any avenue that historically excluded people have to address the challenges that they’re facing.”

While labor law preemptions are more common in GOP-led states, some blue or purple states like Colorado and Oregon have also restricted local ordinances.

Counter Plans

Missouri’s minimum wage and paid sick leave policies were enacted as new laws, which legislators can easily revoke or modify.

However, a constitutional amendment is more difficult to undo, as it requires approval by voters through a separate amendment process.

Organizers are petitioning to enshrine paid sick leave and a $15 minimum wage, with inflation adjustments, into the state constitution due to the state’s preemption law.

Another petition launched this week aims to add an amendment to preserve the simple majority vote for passing ballot initiatives. It would also prevent the legislature from overruling or modifying citizen-initiated laws or constitutional amendments unless 80% of House and Senate members vote to send revisions to a statewide vote.

Meanwhile, another bid aims to add sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, and gender identity to the state’s anti-bias law as protected categories.

Opponents of the sick leave and minimum wage measures see them as threats to business profits.

Republican leaders argued that the state Constitution should be difficult to amend, as outside special interests and liberal groups often influence the petition process to circumvent GOP-led legislatures with certain policies.

The proposed ballot approval threshold “is quite unique” but not impossible to meet, Rep. Ed Lewis (R), the bill’s key sponsor, said at a recent hearing. Ballot measures need “broad representation” in all districts to reflect voters’ will, he said.

Looking Ahead

Missouri lawmakers’ approval of the ballot restrictions dovetails with the rare passage of a bill, at President Donald Trump’s request, to redraw the state’s congressional district lines to benefit Republicans. Democrats and other critics denounced it as unconstitutional.

Advocates expect that the consequential nature of recent legislative actions will help attract more attention to their petitions and policy campaigns, and the broader preemption debate, as voter engagement increases.

“How we’ve won campaigns is by centering real people who are going to be impacted by the issues at hand. We have plenty of people who just saw the real impact of their paid sick days get taken away,” Adams said. “This is a nonpartisan, bipartisan issue.”