Dive Brief:
- XpertHR released a report on paid sick leave across the U.S. and the quickly changing laws surrounding the practice. As of August 1, 2015, four states and more than 20 municipalities have passed paid sick leave laws affecting private employers.
- To further complicate matters, some states have gone the opposite direction by banning cities and counties from passing paid sick leave laws.
- Compliance has become a real concern, says XpertHR, especially for organizations that span multiple cities and states.
Dive Insight:
While more employers are voluntarily offering paid sick leave, state law has made the matter more complicated. California, Connecticut, Oregon and Massachusetts are among states “that have proactively passed laws guaranteeing paid sick leave to workers,” says XpertHR.
But Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wisconsin have all passed “pre-emptive” laws, banning municipalities from passing paid sick leave laws so not to create a “hodge-podge” of standards within one state.
"With the jumble of sick leave laws popping up across the country, the real concern is ensuring compliance, particularly for companies that operate in multiple locations," Melissa Burdorf, Legal Editor, XpertHR, says in a press release. "Employers need to do a lot of homework and fully understand all the nuances before implementing any policies or practices regarding sick leave."