18 states now stop cities from enacting paid leave standards
Across most of the South and Midwest, state laws bar local governments from requiring employers to provide paid sick leave, effectively stripping cities of the power to enact their own labor protections.
Nearly 73 million workers live in the 18 states that now have such preemptive laws, according to a new report from A Better Balance, a legal advocacy organization focused on workplace rights, and the National Partnership for Women & Families, a nonprofit advocacy group.
“Local leaders know what’s best for their communities. To take away the decision-making power from local communities on this issue and others is very, very concerning,” said Feroza Freeland, policy director of the Southern office at A Better Balance, and one of the report’s authors.
Among the 18 states included in the report was Missouri. The legislature passed a measure in May to repeal paid leave requirements voters had approved in November that expanded access to paid sick leave for about 728,000 workers who lacked it. Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe on Thursday signed the statewide repeal into law. Local paid sick leave laws have been banned in Missouri since 2017.
Kehoe in a statement called the paid sick leave mandates “onerous,” saying they dictated when and how sick leave was provided and had “burdensome” recordkeeping and compliance obligations.
https://stateline.org/2025/07/10/18-states-now-stop-cities-from-enacting-paid-leave-standards/
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