Michael Kass

Most Missouri employers will soon be required to pay workers a minimum wage of $13.75 per hour and provide paid sick leave. Yesterday, in a referendum on Missouri wage laws, voters resoundingly approved Proposition A, which amends Missouri statutory law to increase the minimum wage to $13.75 per hour, effective January 1, 2025, with additional increases in the years that follow. The proposition also mandates that employers provide paid sick leave, effective May 1, 2025.

As has been widely reported, the Hon. Ada E. Brown issued a ruling on Aug. 20, 2024, setting aside the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) controversial ban of nearly all employee noncompetition agreements nationwide. Pursuant to the court's order, the FTC's rule "shall not be enforced or otherwise take effect on its effective of September 4, 2024, or thereafter." That said, the battle over the noncompete ban and the FTC's approach to noncompetes is not necessarily over.

What's an employer to do? The FTC rolled out its noncompete ban earlier this year. The effective date is Sept. 4, 2024. If the rule actually goes into effect and is not enjoined or vacated by the courts, it will indeed go into effect on that date (absent the FTC signaling otherwise). Of course, this issue only applies to those employers who use noncompetes with employees who are not "senior executives" (as defined in the FTC Rule).