What You Don’t Know About Paid Sick Leave

Paid sick leave laws are the labor law topic of the moment. Four states have already adopted newbsick leave laws. Some cities and counties are even passing their own paid sick leave laws in an effort to create more change on the state level.

There have been so many recent developments regarding the sick leave laws we’ve decided to create a review of the 2015 laws that have occurred thus far. In this review, we will be looking at US states that have passed paid sick leave laws.

You’re about to find out what you need to know about statewide paid sick leave laws if you’re responsible for labor law compliance.

So what exactly are paid sick leave laws?

They’re essentially laws mandating paid sick leave for most employees. They usually are accrual-based and allow employees to take time off for:

  • A personal illness or injury
  • A doctor’s appointment (in some cases)
  • A relative’s (TBD by state) illness or injury
  • Recovery from an assault or trauma

The amount of paid sick time usually depends on the size of the company and the number of hours an employee works.

Some states and cities only require a handout about the law, while others require an actual labor law poster. Then still, some states and cities don’t require either while some require both. So how do you know if you need to update your labor posters due to a paid sick leave law?

Check out your state below to find out.

Connecticut

A true pioneer, Connecticut was the first state to pass a law mandating paid sick leave starting January 1st, 2015. Let’s check out the highlights of this new law:

  • For companies with 50 or more employees, the accrual is at a rate of 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked by a service worker
  • Employees may accrue up to a maximum of 40 hours per year.
  • Employees may carry over unused paid sick leave from the previous year
  • The year is based on the payroll for the week containing October 1st annually.

Employers in Connecticut are required to update their labor posters so that it contains the new paid sick leave laws for Connecticut.

Massachusetts

The 2nd state to adopt a new Earned Sick Time poster, the law differs from Connecticut’s with regards to the number of employees a company must have to qualify for paid sick leave. Here’s what you need to know if your business is in Massachusetts:

  • As of July 1st, 2015, the law covers all employees: full-time workers, part-time workers, seasonal employees and temporary employees.
  • In Massachusetts, employers are required to offer paid sick time for up to 40 hours if they have 11 or more employees.
  • Leave may be unpaid for up to 40 hours for 10 or fewer employees.
  • An employee can use sick time when the employee or employee’s child, spouse, parent or parent of the spouse is sick, has a medical appointment, or has suffered a trauma.
  • Notification is required beforehand except in an emergency.

If your business is located in Massachusetts you are required to update your labor law posters due to this mandatory change.

Please note that there have been other changes this year to the Minimum Wage poster, the Fair Employment notice and the Parental Leave section of the If you haven’t updated your labor posters already, please consider a labor law poster service, which will be explained in further detail at the end of this article.

California

Governor Jerry Brown signed the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act on September 10th, 2014.

  • This act entitles employees to accrue up to three paid sick days in a 12 month period starting July 1st, 2015.
  • The law applies to almost all employers statewide with the following exceptions:
    1. Employees covered by collective bargaining agreements with certain provisions
    2. Providers of in-home supportive services
    3. Certain covered employees of the airline industry
  • California’s new paid sick leave law requires employers to document the hours worked by employees as well as provide them with written information about the new paid sick leave law and their available paid sick leave available on payday.

You are required to post the new paid sick leave laws for California which makes this a mandatory labor law poster change.

Oregon

This state is in the midst of establishing whether a labor law poster is required for the new Oregon paid sick leave law, which passed on June 22, 2015. Here’s what you need to know:

  • The law goes into effect on January 1st, 2016.
  • Oregon employers with 10 or more employees will need to provide workers with up to 40 hours of paid sick time depending on the number of hours worked.
  • Oregon employers with fewer than 10 employees will need to provide up to 40 hours of unpaid sick time depending on the number of hours worked.

The law itself does not specify a posting requirement, so our research team contacted the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) to find out directly from the source. What we found was that they are currently in the process of figuring this question out.

So basically, nobody knows yet, not even BOLI.

We will continue to and will have more about this as the date of the new sick leave law draws closer. Until then, feel free to sign up to receive email notifications about recent mandatory changes. That way, we can email you when we find out more about this change.

What  can you do to stay up to date with all these changes?

Let’s not forget that the sick leave laws are only one notice out of possibly 20 notices on the labor law posters.

What about all the other notices?

If you don’t want to worry at all about labor law posters, a labor law poster service is the perfect solution. Here’s why:

  • The responsibility of compliance is placed on a compliance expert.
  • Free automatic updates mean you don’t have to keep buying new compliance posters each time there is a change.
  • All you have to do is put your newly updated poster on the wall.

Check out Poster Compliance Center’s 1-Year Compliance Plan. This labor law poster service includes everything you need to be in compliance with all the mandatory state and federal notices.

That covers everything you need to know about statewide paid sick leave laws. If you would like to learn about city and county paid sick leave laws, stay tuned, the next article is coming out very soon.

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