Eight months after voters approved it, Missouri’s governor, Mike Kehoe, signed the repeal of a law on Thursday that had guaranteed paid sick leave to workers and inflation-linked adjustments to the minimum wage.
The move marked a major victory for the state’s largest business group and a frustrating defeat for workers’ rights advocates, who had spent years – and millions of dollars – building support for the successful ballot measure. The repeal will take effect on 28 August.
Kehoe, who also signed a package of tax breaks on Thursday, described the paid sick leave law as an onerous mandate that imposed burdensome record-keeping.
“Today, we are protecting the people who make Missouri work – families, job creators and small business owners – by cutting taxes, rolling back overreach and eliminating costly mandates,” Kehoe, a Republican, said in a statement released after a private bill-signing ceremony.