By Savannah Hawley-Bates
KCUR-FM (NPR), Kansas City, April 15, 2025
Business owners are required to tell their workers about their right to paid sick leave on Tuesday. But a bill in the Missouri legislature and a case in the Missouri Supreme Court could take away the provision, which voters widely approved last fall, before it begins May 1. ...
Mike Schroeder is the owner of Oddly Correct Coffee in Kansas City. He began offering his employees a livable wage and paid sick time in 2019. He said since then Oddly Correct has had a 20% increase in revenue.
“People knew that they didn't have to sacrifice their livelihood just to stay home and get better,” Schroeder said. “We didn't have COVID spreading around our staff to everybody .... So we stayed open, and we kept our business running, and we're able to not only survive but thrive through that.
Oddly Correct is one of more than 500 businesses in the Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy Coalition, which supports Proposition A. Schroeder and four other business owners in the state filed an amicus brief against the Missouri chamber and other groups who seek to take away sick time.
About 50 people rallied outside Oddly Correct last week to support the state’s mandatory paid sick leave policy. They were joined by others around the state and canvassed local businesses to inform workers of the new sick leave law that they hope will go into effect next month as scheduled. ...
Schroeder said ... business owners should “have a little bit of faith” and that they’ll get better employees and more customer support in return for offering sick leave.
“When people know that they don't have to sacrifice themselves for their work, they feel better about their work,” Schroeder said. “They're not coming in getting other people sick or are here miserable, providing poor service." ...