On June 24, 2022, the Department of Labor and Employment issued guidance for the state’s Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (the Act). The guidance focuses on how sick pay accrues and leave taken for public health emergencies.
Starting in 2021, the Act requires employers to provide employees one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours per year, and unused hours can carry forward into the next year. The guidance states that any unused hours carried over into a subsequent year can be counted against the 48 hour/year total in that year. This also means that if the employee carried over 48 hours from the previous year, then they do not earn any additional sick leave in the current year.
The Act also provides for public health emergency leave for use when leave is associated with a public health emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This leave supplements the paid sick leave under the Act with up to 80 hours. The paid leave already accrued as of the date the public health leave is requested will count towards the public health leave. For instance, if an employee requests public health leave due to COVID-19, and they have 10 hours of paid sick leave accrued as of the date of their request, the employer must add 70 more hours of supplemental leave. The employee can use the public health leave granted in this way before they use their accrued sick leave.
Employers in the state or with employees in the state should be aware of this guidance.
Interpretive Notice and Formal Opinion (INFO) #68 »
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