America’s Paid Sick Leave Epidemic

Over the last few years one of the most rapidly growing areas in employment law has been that of mandatory paid sick leave affecting private employers.  At the start of 2014, mandatory paid sick leave laws existed in only five locations around the country—San Francisco, CA, Washington, D.C., Connecticut, Seattle, WA, and Long Beach, CA (limited to hotel employers).  For private employers outside of these locations, paid sick leave was not mandatory and, instead, was a benefit employers could elect to offer some or all of their employees.  However, today’s paid sick leave landscape is significantly different and more complex as the number of existing paid sick leave laws has grown to at least 35.

The first half of 2016 is responsible for much of this growth and recently has seen several major U.S. cities—Chicago, IL, Minneapolis, MN, Los Angeles, CA, and San Diego, CA—adopt paid sick leave ordinances.  Each ordinance contains a number of potential pitfalls for employers that must be handled with caution in order to comply with the new requirements. 

Unfortunately, the paid sick leave prognosis for the rest of the year does not look favorable for employers.  A number of locations are seriously considering implementing paid sick leave laws, and the U.S. Department of Labor is on track to publish final regulations that would extend paid sick leave benefits to certain employees of many federal contractors by January 1, 2017.

Join us on August 4 to learn how paid sick leave laws affect you, and how to comply with the country’s constantly evolving paid sick leave patchwork.  All registrants will receive a guide outlining many of the most significant paid sick leave developments.