The Washington Paid Sick Leave law (WPSL) goes into effect January 1, 2018. The new law requires all employers, regardless of size, to provide non-exempt employees 1 hour of sick leave for every 40 hours of work. The new law establishes several mandates regarding accrual caps, permissible usage of leave, leave carry over, record-keeping and notification, and non-retaliation.

The Department of Labor and Industries has recently posted its WPSL final rules and draft sample policies. Employers should know that L&I’s sample policies are not mandatory and employers can consider whether or not to adopt them or create their own. In some instances the sample policies forego employers’ ability to help manage WPSL as provided by the law.

In sum, before January 1, employers have choices to make about how to comply with the law, including whether to use a PTO policy to comply.