paid sick leave

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The New Jersey Paid Sick Leave Act takes effect today, October 29, 2018. Just in time for flu season.

If you are a New Jersey employer or an employer with employees in New Jersey, regardless of size or employee number, you are now required by law to provide one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked – up to 40 hours in a benefit year – to all employees (including part-time and seasonal) with the minor exceptions of: (i) per diem health care employees, (ii) construction workers employed under a collective bargaining agreement (who will later begin to accrue sick leave under the law on the date the agreement expires), and (iii) public employees previously entitled to sick leave benefits under state law.

Sick leave under the law begins to accrue on the law’s effective date (October 29th), or upon an employee’s later date of hire, and may begin to be used 120 days after an employee’s start of employment (or upon such earlier date that an employer permits).  Leave granted under the law may be advanced in whole, or be subject to accrual.

The state law preempts the various municipal laws previously in effect.  Employers who provide paid time off (PTO) banks are compliant with the Act provided the PTO may be used for the purposes and in the manner set forth under the state law and is accrued at a rate equal to or greater than the rate provided by the law.

An employer may choose the increments in which an employee may use earned sick leave, provided that the largest increment required does not exceed the number of hours an employee is scheduled to work for that shift (including any overtime). Acceptable reasons for using paid sick leave include: (i) for preventative care or the diagnosis, care, treatment or recovery of an employee’s own mental or physical illness, injury or health condition, or that of their family member; (ii) treatment, counseling or preparation for legal proceedings necessary following domestic or sexual violence to an employee or their family member; (iii) an employee’s need to attend school-related conferences, meetings or events regarding their child’s education, or to attend a school-related meeting concerning their child’s health; or (iv) an employee’s time off upon the employer’s closing, or the closing of their child’s school or child care provider, due to a public health emergency.
Continue Reading New Jersey Employers: The State Paid Sick Leave Law Is Now In Effect – Are You Ready?

A reminder to all employers with any employees who work in Chicago or elsewhere in Cook County, Illinois: ordinances mandating that you provide paid sick leave to employees who work in Chicago or Cook County take effect July 1, 2017.

As we previously reported here, under the Chicago Paid Sick Leave Ordinance (and the almost identical Cook County Earned Sick Leave Ordinance), employers must begin awarding every employee who works in Chicago or Cook County one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked, up to at least 40 hours of paid sick leave per year (plus up to at least 20 unused rollover hours from the previous year). Nearly any employee who works at least 80 hours within any 120-day period in either jurisdiction qualifies, but employers may require the employee to wait up to 180 days after starting employment before they may use accrued paid sick leave.  Employers can avoid the carryover and accrual requirements by “frontloading” their employees with equal or greater leave at the start of each calendar or benefit year.

Recently released interpretative rules from the City and County have added the following clarifications:

  • According to the City’s rules, “[i]n the case of a conflict between the [City’s] Ordinance and the Cook County Earned Sick Leave Ordinance, the [City’s] Ordinance shall prevail within the City.”
  • After the first year of employment, an employee may use a maximum of 60 hours of paid sick leave (unless the employer has a more generous policy)
  • An employee may use paid sick leave in one-hour increments, unless the employer establishes and disseminates a written minimum-use policy
  • An employer is not required to allow paid sick leave use while the employee is on disciplinary leave
  • Paid sick leave must be paid no later than the next regular payroll period beginning after the leave was used
  • The following employees are not covered under either ordinance:
    • Employees working in construction covered by a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”)
    • Employees covered by a CBA entered into before July 1, 2017
    • Employees covered by a CBA entered into on or after July 1, 2017, and that explicitly waives their rights under the ordinance(s)
  • Immigration status does not affect an employee’s rights under either ordinance
  • A private right of action is possible under both ordinances

Continue Reading Chicago-Area Employers: Paid Sick Leave Begins July 1

The New Jersey Senate has again approved a bill, S-799, that requires New Jersey employers to provide paid sick leave to workers in the state for:

(a) the diagnosis, care, or treatment of, or recovery from, an employee’s mental or physical illness, injury or other adverse health condition, or for preventative medical care for the employee

(b) care for a family member during diagnosis, care or treatment of, or recovery from, the family member’s mental or physical illness, injury or other adverse health condition, or preventative medical care for the family member

(c) obtaining medical attention, counselling, relocation, legal or other services due to circumstances resulting from an employee or family member being a victim of domestic or sexual violence

The bill, identical to the bill which cleared the Senate last year but never made its way to the Governor’s desk, requires businesses to grant workers one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked – capping mandatory accrual at 72 hours for “large” businesses of 10 or more employees and 40 hours for “small” businesses of less than 10 employees. Additional details of the bill are summarized in our December blog post.
Continue Reading Paid Sick Leave Bill Clears New Jersey Senate Again

The Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas (the Court) recently struck down the hotly contested Pittsburgh Paid Sick Leave Ordinance — bestowing a generous holiday gift on the thousands of Pittsburgh (City) employers that otherwise would have been forced to start providing paid sick leave to their workers in 2016.

Background 

As passed by the City Counsel and signed into law by Mayor Bill Peduto earlier this year, the Ordinance required all private City employers to pay their covered employees for at least one hour of sick leave for each 35 hours worked. On an annual, per-employee basis, this would have meant up to 40 hours sick leave paid by entities with 15 or more employees, and up to 24 hours of such leave by those with fewer than 15 employees.
Continue Reading Pa. Judge Strikes Down Pittsburgh’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance

On December 17, 2015, the New Jersey Senate passed legislation that would require New Jersey employers of any size to provide employees with paid sick leave. The bill was received by the Assembly on December 21, 2015, and referred to the Assembly Human Services Committee. If passed by the House and signed by the Governor, the bill would take effect 120 days after its enactment.

Leave Amount and Accrual

The bill requires small employers (10 employees or less) to provide up to forty (40) hours of paid sick leave and large employers (employers with more than 10 employees) to provide up to seventy-two (72) hours of sick leave. Employees would accrue paid sick leave at a rate of one (1) hour for every thirty (30) hours worked. In lieu of the accrual periods, employers may provide employees with a full complement of earned sick leave on the first day of each benefit year.  
Continue Reading New Jersey Poised to Become Latest State to Require Paid Sick Leave

Not surprisingly, the New York City Council last Wednesday overwhelmingly passed Mayor Bill de Blasio’s sweeping amendment to the New York City Earned Sick Time Act. Most notably, the amendment expands the Act’s coverage to organizations with 5 or more employees (reduced from the prior 15-employee threshold). The amendment takes effect almost immediately, on April 1, 2014–departing from the staggered implementation scheme contemplated by the Bloomberg-era version of the Act. See our February 3, 2014 post for more specific details about the amendment’s provisions: https://www.employmentlawwatch.com/2014/02/articles/employment-us/new-nyc-mayor-comes-out-of-the-gate-swinging-demands-expansion-of-paid-sick-leave-law/.
Continue Reading As Expected, New York City Council Expands Paid Sick Leave Law on the Eve of Implementation

Mark Goldstein contributed to the content of this post. 

New Mayor Bill de Blasio wasted no time putting his stamp on the New York City employment law landscape. On January 17, de Blasio proposed an amendment to expand the already-broad paid sick leave law that the New York City Council passed last summer. Already…

Connecticut recently became the first state to mandate that employers provide paid sick leave for service workers (the “Act”), effective January 1, 2012.

The Act may indicate an emerging trend of which employers should be aware. Cities, including San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee, have already passed mandatory paid sick leave legislation in recent years,…