Primary sources
- Mo. Rev. Stat. 290.110. Accessed 17 September 2026.
United States · Missouri · Final pay child
Served by Teamed US Inc., Delaware
When is a final paycheck due in Missouri?
Missouri's final-pay statute is one of the oldest still in force, and it reads like it. The deadline is the day you discharge someone, and the statute still describes the employee asking "the keeper of his time" for the money.
· Missouri, United States guide
Answer · cite this
In Missouri wages become due and payable on the day of the discharge, under Mo. Rev. Stat. 290.110. An employee who resigns is paid on the next regular payday.
The statute's own wording is worth reading, because it does not simply set a date: wages "shall be and become due and payable on the day of the discharge", and it contemplates the employee making a written request to be paid.
That request mechanism is a nineteenth-century drafting artefact rather than a modern condition, but it is why Missouri's rule is sometimes described as demand-based and sometimes as automatic. The safe reading is that the money is due that day.
When must a final paycheck be paid after firing someone in Missouri?
On the day of the discharge. Mo. Rev. Stat. 290.110 makes wages due and payable that day.
Same-day payment means the final figure has to exist before the termination takes effect, which is a planning requirement rather than a payroll one. The calculation, the approval and the payment route all need to be ready in advance of the conversation.
The statute's reference to the employee requesting payment in writing from "his foreman or the keeper of his time" dates from an era of paper timebooks. Relying on it as a precondition is unwise: treat the day of discharge as the deadline and the request as irrelevant to whether you owe the money.
The duty to pay is separate from whether the termination itself was lawful. That is covered on the Missouri termination and at-will page.
What if the employee resigns instead?
The next regular payday. The same-day rule applies only to a discharge.
So Missouri splits the two routes sharply: hours on one side, a normal pay cycle on the other. If you run one offboarding timetable across several states, Missouri is one where it has to branch on who ended the employment.
A resignation shortly after a payday can legitimately wait until the following one.
How does Missouri compare with the states around it?
Missouri is the strictest of its immediate neighbours on a discharge. Kansas, Iowa and Illinois all work differently.
| State | If fired | If employee quits | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Missouri | Immediately on the day of discharge | Next regular payday | Mo. Rev. Stat. 290.110 |
| Kansas | Next regular payday | Next regular payday | Kan. Stat. 44-315 |
| Iowa | Next regular payday | Next regular payday | Iowa Code 91A.4 |
| Illinois | At time of separation if possible, otherwise next regular payday | At time of separation if possible, otherwise next regular payday | 820 ILCS 115/5 |
| Arkansas | Within 7 days of discharge if the employee demands payment, otherwise next regular payday | Next regular payday | Ark. Code 11-4-405 |
The full 50-state picture is on the final paycheck laws by state table.
Missouri final pay, in short
- Deadline if fired
- Immediately on the day of discharge
- Deadline if the employee quits
- Next regular payday
- Governing statute
- Mo. Rev. Stat. 290.110
- Source
- Primary source
- Last verified
How much of this do you still handle if you hire in Missouri through an EOR?
None of it. The same-day calculation, the payment and the wage records sit with the employer of record.
What costs more than the deadline is everything around it:
- onboarding and offboarding fees
- termination charges
- contracts that lock you in
- FX markups on every pay run
- a platform built for a company ten times your size
- a ticket queue where you never learn who to contact
The industry profits from keeping that hidden. Teamed calls it the Hidden Global Employment Tax, and Teamed's whole model exists to remove it.
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Questions people ask about Missouri final pay
When is a final paycheck due in Missouri if someone is fired?
On the day of the discharge. Mo. Rev. Stat. 290.110 makes wages due and payable that day.
When is it due if the employee quits?
The next regular payday. The same-day rule applies only to a discharge.
Does a Missouri employee have to ask for their final paycheck in writing?
Mo. Rev. Stat. 290.110 contains an old clause contemplating a written request to the employer's "foreman or the keeper of his time", which is why the rule is sometimes described as demand-based. It is a drafting artefact from a much older statute, and the safe reading for an employer is that wages are due and payable on the day of the discharge whether or not anyone asks.
A note from Tom Price-Daniel
Missouri's statute is old and its deadline is not.
Wages are due the day you discharge someone, whatever the paperwork clause says about asking.
Have the number ready before the meeting, not after it.
Tom Price-Daniel · Co-founder, Teamed
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