By Mercy Austin and Faith Boyd
Columbia Missourian, April 10, 2025. Also KBIA-FM (NPR), Webster County Citizen, Maryville (MO) Forum, Griffon News, Marietta Daily Journal

Fifteen activists gathered at Yellow Dog Bookshop on Thursday to protest a Missouri House bill that would overturn Prop A’s sick leave provision. ... Yellow Dog Bookshop owner Joe Chevalier believes Missouri workers deserve paid sick leave and increased minimum wage.

“I think that a lot of people are, even in the wake of the pandemic, coming to work sick because they’re afraid of losing money, losing hours, maybe losing...

By Chandler Watkins
KCTV 5, Kansas City, April 10, 2025

Last November, Missourians voted in favor of Proposition A, which increased the state’s minimum wage and gives employees earned paid time off. As a house bill that would repeal the earned sick pay portion of the proposition makes its way through the Capitol ... Dozens gathered outside Oddly Correct Coffee at the corner of E 42nd and Troost Thursday afternoon in support of the proposition ...

Missouri Jobs with Justice, Missouri Workers Center, Stand Up KC, business owners, workers, and more rallied outside the coffee...

By Jonathan Ketz
Fox4 Kansas City, April 10, 2025. Also Yahoo News

Voters in Missouri are still wondering whether all of Proposition A, something approved by 58% of voters in November, will fully go into effect. A bill going through the state legislature, House Bill 567, would repeal the earned sick pay portion of the proposition. ... Proposition A supporters, including Missouri Jobs for Justice, gathered at the Oddly Correct Coffee Bar at 42nd and Troost Thursday afternoon.

Missouri Jobs for Justice Kansas City Regional Organizer Katie Hildebrand says she’s concerned with the bill. “We...

By Hannah Falcon
KY3 Springfield, April 10, 2025. Also KMOV-TV St. Louis, KFVS-TV Cape Girardeau,  WGEM-TV (Quincy, IL), KAIT-TV (Jonesboro, AR)

Missouri lawmakers are moving forward with plans that would restrict abortions and paid sick leave. After Missourians voted in favor of restoring abortion access and requiring paid sick leave, many Republican lawmakers introduced bills that would reverse those votes. If passed, one bill would entirely repeal the paid sick leave portion of Prop A, which is set to go into effect May 1. ...

The Missouri Supreme Court is also considering a lawsuit to...

By Will Firra
KBIA (NPR), Columbia, April 10, 2025

Radio story includes Joe Chevalier, owner of Yellow Dog Bookshop

Listen to radio story

By Clara Bates
Missouri Independent, March 26, 2025. Also Yahoo News, Columbia Missourian, St. Louis Business Journal, Webster County Citizen, Perry County Republic Monitor.

A Republican-led push to overturn the paid sick leave law adopted by Missouri voters last year was debated and approved Wednesday by a state Senate committee. The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Sherri Gallick of Belton, was passed by the House earlier this month and would gut Proposition A, a voter-approved law requiring most employers starting May 1 to provide paid sick time off for hundreds of thousands of qualifying...

By Samantha Walker
KOAM-TV Joplin, March 13, 2025

Mike Draper, owner of Raygun clothing and design in Kansas City, MO, opposes the effort to overturn Proposition A, supported by voters in November. Draper says, "The free market does not mean free of rules. It is we all decide what the rules are and then we compete freely within that market. If the minimum wage goes up those are the rules."

WATCH

By Kurt Erickson
St. Louis Post Dispatch, March 12, 2025

Republican-aligned business groups asked the Missouri Supreme Court Wednesday to overturn the results of a voter-approved increase in the state’s minimum wage. ...

A brief filed by five Missouri business owners said the lawsuit wrongly seeks to overturn the will of the strong majority of voters. The businesses contend that raising the minimum wage boosts consumer spending at local businesses and, along with paid sick leave, will reduce costly employee turnover and lead to increased productivity, improved health and safety, and better customer service.

“As...

By Hannah Falcon
KY3-TV, Springfield (Gray Media), March 12, 2025. Also KFVS-TV (Cape Girardeau), KMOV-TV (St. Louis), KCTV-TV (Kansas City), KAIT-TV (Jonesboro, AR), WGEM-TV (Quincy, IL) 

Missouri voted to raise the minimum wage and require paid sick leave, but now that could be overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court. Arguments were heard Wednesday morning in a lawsuit that claims Proposition A, passed in November, was unconstitutional. ... Several business groups brought this lawsuit forward ... But some small businesses stepped up to defend it. ...

Joe Chevalier, owner of Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia, is...

By Clara Bates
Missouri Independent, March 12, 2025. Also Yahoo News, Jefferson City News Tribune, Springfield News Leader, St. Louis Business Journal, Columbia Daily Tribune, Joplin Globe, KSDK-TV St. Louis, St. Joseph Post, Maryville Forum, Perry County Republic Monitor, Sedalia Democrat, KFEQ Radio St. Joseph

Months after Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved a minimum wage increase and paid sick leave requirements, the new laws face challenges this week in court and the state legislature. 

On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court Court heard arguments in a lawsuit seeking to strike down Proposition A, which guarantees sick leave...

By Johnny Martin and Finnegan Belleau
Columbia Missourian, March 12, 2025. Also Jefferson County Leader.

Business leaders argued Wednesday before the Missouri Supreme Court that a new law increasing the minimum wage and guaranteeing paid sick leave should be overturned. ...

Five small business owners in Missouri, including Columbia’s Yellow Dog Bookshop owner, submitted a brief before Wednesday’s hearing in support of Proposition A.

“In contrast to the special interest groups and trade associations attempting to block Proposition A, these business owners see great value in paying workers a higher minimum wage and ensuring workers...

By Marie Moyer
KMIZ-TV (ABC 17), March 12, 2025

Lawyers for several business groups argued in front of the Missouri Supreme Court in an attempt to overturn Proposition A on Wednesday. ...

Supporters of Prop A include the Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia, Pickwick Underground Framing in Springfield and Oddly Correct Coffee and Raygun in Kansas City.

Joseph Chevalier, of Yellow Dog Bookshop, and Mike Draper, of Raygun, claim the ballot's title was clear and that these changes will help the economy by giving workers more spending power.

"I understand the concept that you can't...

By Ashlyn O'hara
Alaska Public Media, January 23, 2025

Alaska’s minimum wage has increased annually since voters tied the hourly rate to inflation in 2014. Earlier this month, it went up by $0.18 per hour, from $11.73 to $11.91. But this year, the minimum wage is going up twice. On July 1, it’s jumping by more than a dollar – to $13 per hour. That’s after voters passed Ballot Measure 1 last November. The initiative increases Alaska’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2027. ...

Not all businesses oppose the changes, though. More...

By Sean Salai
Washington Times, January 22, 2025

... State-mandated inflation adjustments, recent legislation and voter-approved ballot measures enacted minimum wage increases in 21 states on Jan. 1. ...

“Raising the minimum wage is a very efficient way to boost businesses and the economy because it puts money in the pockets of people who most need to spend it,” said Holly Sklar, CEO of the advocacy group Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. ...

Advocates argue that regular wage hikes foster economic growth, reduce employee turnover and mitigate rising living costs for these workers. ...

Read more

By Kevin Hardy
Stateline, January 10, 2025. Also Yahoo News, Governing, Missouri Independent, St. Joseph News Press (MO), Richmond Register, Virginia Mercury, New Hampshire Bulletin, Laconia Daily Sun (NH), Boston Herald, South Dakota Searchlight, Ohio Capital Journal, Arkansas Advocate, Louisiana Illuminator, Scottsbluff Star Herald (NE), many more

The minimum wage will increase in nearly half the states this year even as the federal wage floor remains stuck at $7.25 per hour. In many states, the minimum wage is automatically adjusted upward as inflation rises. But voters in several states, including deeply red ones such as...