Roughly 20 states and 30 local jurisdictions have implemented paid sick leave laws. Several of these states and jurisdictions amended their paid sick leave policies in 2023, with the amendments taking effect Jan. 1, 2024. Additionally, Minnesota has enacted its first statewide paid sick and safe time law, which also takes effect Monday. Below is a summary of these new or updated laws.

California

California’s paid sick leave law applies to any employer that employs at least one employee in California for at least 30 days within one year. The amendments to the law will increase the minimum amount of paid sick leave an employer must provide to its employees, as well as annual sick leave accrual and usage caps.

Beginning Jan. 1, employers have three options to comply with the amended law:

1) provide employees with a front-loaded annual grant of 40 hours or 5 days of sick leave

2) allow employees to accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked

3) provide sick leave that accrues on a regular basis other than one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked, so that employees have no less than 24 hours of accrued leave by either the 120th calendar day of employment or in each 12-month period and no less than 40 hours of accrued leave by the 200th calendar day of employment or in each 12-month period.

Additionally, the California amendments raise the paid sick leave accrual cap from 48 hours to 80 hours and increase the paid sick leave usage cap from 24 hours or three days to 40 hours or five days per benefit year.

Illinois

Illinois’ amended paid sick leave law, the Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act (PLFAW), will allow employees to take paid sick leave for any reason. All employers in Illinois, including state and local governments, employing one or more persons are subject to the PLFAW Act. The PLFAW also applies to every employee working for an employer in Illinois.

Under the PLFAW, employees accrue one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours they work, up to a minimum of 40 hours annually. Alternatively, employers can frontload 40 hours of paid sick leave to employees on the first day of employment or the beginning of the designated 12-month period. Employees may begin using paid sick leave 90 days after starting employment or March 31, 2024, whichever is later. Employers using an accrual (as opposed to frontloading) method must carry over employees accrued but unused PLFAW leave from year to year but may limit an employee’s annual usage of the leave to 40 hours.

Illinois’ existing paid sick leave law also provided leave to employees only for specific permitted uses, but the amended PLFAW will allow employees to use paid leave for any reason and prohibits employers from requiring employees to provide documentation or certification when they request paid leave. If local ordinances in Illinois enact or amend their paid leave provisions, they must comply with the PLFAW.

Washington

Amendments to Washington state’s paid sick leave law effective next year apply only to certain construction workers. Washington’s existing law permits employees to use their accrued paid leave beginning on the 90th day of employment. Due to the nature of many construction jobs, construction workers often were disadvantaged by this provision because many of their jobs take less than three months. As of Jan. 1, however, Washington employers will be required to pay residential building construction workers who have not met the 90-day eligibility requirement the balance of their accrued but unused paid sick leave at termination. However, unlike the general rule in Washington that employers must reinstate unused and accrued paid leave to an employee who is rehired within 12 months of the separation, if a construction worker is rehired within one year, their previously accrued but unused paid sick leave will not be reinstated.

Chicago

The Chicago City Council voted in November to amend its paid sick leave law, the Chicago Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave, effective Dec. 31. But the council earlier this month voted to delay implementation until July 1.

The amended ordinance requires employers to provide eligible employees with at least 40 hours of paid leave for any reason the employee chooses, plus an additional 40 hours of paid sick leave per year to use for the care, treatment and diagnosis of the employee or the employee’s family members. Under the amended law, employees are permitted to carry over up to 16 hours of accrued but unused paid leave and up to 80 hours of accrued but unused paid sick leave to the next benefit year. An employer is permitted to limit an employee’s leave usage to 40 hours of paid leave and 40 hours of paid sick leave, per year.

There also is no requirement to pay out accrued but unused paid sick leave at termination, but some employers may be required to pay out unused paid leave, depending on the size of their workforce:

• 101+ employees: an employee must be paid all unused accrued paid leave on termination.
• Between 51-100 employees: an employee must be paid up to 16 hours of paid leave until July 2025, and all unused accrued paid leave on or after July 1, 2025.
• 50 or fewer employees: an employer is not required to pay employees their unused paid leave.

The amended Chicago Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Act applies equally to all employees who work at least 80 hours for an employer within any 120-day period in the geographic boundaries of Chicago.

Minnesota

Minnesota’s new Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) law covers all employees, including temporary and part-time employees, who work at least 80 hours in Minnesota, except federal government employees. Employees must accrue at least one hour of ESST leave for every 30 hours worked but an employer may cap an employee’s annual accrual of ESST at 48 hours. Instead of providing leave on an accrual basis, an employer may instead opt to front-load 48 hours of leave at the beginning of each year or at the beginning of employment.

In addition, employees must be permitted to carry over up to 80 hours of accrued but unused sick leave from year to year, unless the employer front-loads:

(a) 48 hours of leave and pays employees for accrued, unused leave at the end of the year

(b) 80 hours of leave and does not pay employees for accrued, unused leave at the end of the year.

The law designates permitted uses for ESST leave, including for the diagnosis care, or treatment of an employee’s illness or medical condition or that of a family member. At the conclusion of each pay period, an employer must provide its employees with a statement of the total number of ESST hours accrued and available to use, as well as used ESST hours during the pay period.

Employer Takeaways

Employers should review, and to the extent necessary, revise their paid leave policies as they apply to employees working in these jurisdictions. While an employer may not be based or have offices in these jurisdictions, having at least one employee working there may require compliance with the amended laws.

Opinions and conclusions in this post are solely those of the author unless otherwise indicated. The information contained in this blog is general in nature and is not offered and cannot be considered as legal advice for any particular situation. The author has provided the links referenced above for information purposes only and by doing so, does not adopt or incorporate the contents. Any federal tax advice provided in this communication is not intended or written by the author to be used, and cannot be used by the recipient, for the purpose of avoiding penalties which may be imposed on the recipient by the IRS. Please contact the author if you would like to receive written advice in a format which complies with IRS rules and may be relied upon to avoid penalties.

[View source.]