Sick Leave Wins at Risk as States Mull Ballot Initiative Limits

Lawmakers in GOP-majority statehouses are looking to rein in the policymaking power unions and worker advocates have found via ballot initiatives, including through rollbacks of paid sick leave measures voters approved in November.

Missouri is the epicenter of this year’s effort, alongside Alaska and Nebraska which all have new sick leave laws that legislators are looking to repeal or revise.

One Missouri bill (HB 567) would repeal voter-backed paid sick time requirements that are slated to take effect May 1. Missouri lawmakers sent another bill (SB 22) to Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) giving state officials more power to write the initiative summaries that voters see on ballots.

Proposals from Florida to Montana have sought to tighten the rules around citizen-initiated ballot measures, which 26 states allow to varying degrees. Current endeavors are heightened, partly because of Republican lawmakers’ frustration with left-leaning advocates succeeding on recent policy ideas the lawmakers oppose—from abortion rights and Medicaid expansion to $15 minimum wages and paid sick time.

“This is an unprecedented number of serious pieces of legislation moving forward quickly,” to make it harder to put an initiative on the ballot, said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which advocates for ballot measures across policy areas. The group is monitoring 150 such legislative proposals nationwide.

The details of the proposals vary. Several would change state constitutions so that ballot measures require 60% approval, rather than a simple majority, including proposals the South Dakota and Utah legislatures agreed to send to voters for approval.

Others would tweak the process in ways that give initiative backers less time to collect petition signatures or give opponents more opportunities to challenge them in court before they qualify for the ballot.

In Florida, which already requires 60% approval, business leaders backing HB 1205 say it’s needed to ensure the initiative process is led by Floridians. The bill’s procedural changes include barring sponsors from paying signature gatherers on a per-signature basis and requiring elections officials to notify each person whose name is signed to a petition and give them a chance to withdraw it.

“We’ve led this push for over 20 years to protect this ballot process in Florida from out-of-state special interest groups,” said Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Hall said the Florida bill would have the opposite effect, “ensuring that only the most wealthy interests can participate in the citizen-initiated ballot measure process.”

Efforts to tighten ballot measure access aren’t limited to red states. California lawmakers in 2023 approved changes to the referendum process, making it harder for business groups to seek repeal of recently passed laws.

Workplace Laws Spread

Advocacy and business groups use citizen-led ballot initiatives to advance policy goals from legalizing marijuana to classifying Uber drivers as independent contractors.

Some of the most frequent and successful ballot measures have focused on workplace laws, particularly minimum wage increases and more recently paid leave mandates. Voters in more than a dozen states approved minimum wage increases since 2000. California’s 2024 proposal for an $18 minimum was the nation’s first statewide minimum wage increase ballot measure to fail in two decades. Past wins include Florida, where more than 60% of voters in 2020 approved a gradual increase to $15.

Alaska and Missouri included minimum wage increases along with the paid sick time proposals on their successful November ballot initiatives.

Business groups and other opponents of Missouri’s ballot Proposition A have taken their fight against the paid sick leave and minimum wage measure to the state’s Supreme Court, in addition to the statehouse.

They argue Proposition A violates the state’s ban on multiple subjects in one ballot question, asking the court to invalidate the measure before May 1 or order a new election with clearer ballot language.

“When you get large majorities of one party or the other, then the other party’s supporters tend to try to put ballot measures on because they can’t get things through the general assembly or their legislature,” said Marc H. Ellinger, a Missouri attorney representing the challengers to Proposition A. “Some of these things are written very well, and some of these things are written really poorly. Courts are really hesitant to interfere in that process on a real substantive level.”

Supporters of Proposition A say the efforts to overturn it run counter to the democratic principles that have underpinned the state’s initiative process for decades.

“Sometimes the legislature just isn’t meeting the needs of our voters,” said Richard Von Glahn, policy director at Missouri Jobs with Justice. “I’m pretty appalled that lobbying groups would ask judges to overturn a law that was so overwhelmingly passed by voters.”

Sick Leave Momentum

Missouri’s HB 567 would repeal the sick leave requirement, but wouldn’t take effect until late August, almost four months after the law itself does. The House approved the bill in March, and it’s awaiting a Senate vote.

Proposals in the Alaska and Nebraska legislatures are aimed at softening the business impact of their sick leave laws, including by exempting small employers. One Nebraska bill would eliminate employees’ right to sue employers for violations, leaving enforcement up to the state’s labor commissioner.

Despite efforts to roll back new laws, the voter approvals signal strong public support for sick leave guarantees, said Jared Make, vice president at A Better Balance, which advocates for worker rights issues. The measures’ successes in three politically red states set the stage for similar paid time off ballot questions around the country.

Missouri voters approved Proposition A with 57.6% support. Alaska’s Ballot Measure 1 received 58% of the vote, and Nebraska’s Initiative Measure 436 won 74.5%.

“In Nebraska, where the measure was purely sick leave, it passed by nearly 50 points,” Make said. The outcome “reflects what the polling has shown for years: voters regardless of party, demographics, and geography broadly support paid sick time.”