Are You Prepared for the Proliferation of Paid Sick Time?
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This year is shaping up to be an interesting one for HR compliance. The most buzz, it seems, is occurring around paid sick leave. In his 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama asked the U.S. Congress to pass national legislation granting American workers the right to paid sick days when they or their family members get sick, or to deal with sexual assault and domestic abuse.

Paid sick leave is another benefit that most develop countries provide to workers but the U.S. has up to this point resisted. Instead, most employers have what is known as a single-bucket system for any and all paid time off.

Since nothing goes through Congress quickly, Obama also recommended that state and local governments pass legislation. Now, in 2016, this is where most of the action is. Since Obama’s call, four states and 23 cities have already passed sick leave laws, and as a result, nearly 10 million Americans are now covered by a guarantee to earn paid sick leave.

In cities like Spokane, WA, the new legislation requires businesses with 10 or fewer employees to allow them to earn up to three paid days off a year, and larger ones to give workers five days. Spokane’s sick leave bill exempts construction workers, those doing work-study jobs, and seasonal and temporary employees.

Sick leave legislation sounds straightforward but may be more complex for HR professionals than it first appears. Bloomberg BNA, for instance, shares that employers in California, which now has a statewide paid sick leave mandate, may run into problems with existing single-bucket paid time off systems.

“Now you have to make sure you comply with sick pay requirements as well as vacation time requirements, so you run the risk that someone uses all their vacation time and then gets sick, and the employer says: ‘You’ve used all your paid time off,’ and the employee says: ‘What about sick leave required by law?’” Gary McLaughlin, a partner in the management-side law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP’s Los Angeles office, told Bloomberg BNA.

It’s important to keep abreast – in real time – of what your state is doing with respect to paid sick leave so that you don’t risk being called out on a policy that’s in violation of local laws. Also, it’s essential to create clear communication for employees denoting time off that’s paid and unpaid. Both your executives and employees are likely to be fuzzy on this, so it’s up to you to properly educate yourself and those around you.