Compliance Makeover: Paid Sick Leave

Tasha Patterson@Work

Paid Sick Leave Laws Expand to New States, Counties, and Municipalities

Paid Sick LeaveBy Michael Soltis, JD

Blog Author
Paid Sick Leave at Work

The vast and complex patchwork of paid sick leave laws continues to expand, with a new law enacted in January 2018 and one new law enacted and eight taking effect in 2017. To prevent further patchwork fragmentation, six states in 2017 barred political subdivisions from enacting such a law.

More than 40 jurisdictions now have paid sick leave (PSL) laws. Nine states — Arizona, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Vermont — are joined by the District of Columbia, Montgomery County, MD, and Cook County, IL. Both chambers of the Maryland legislature voted in January to override their governor’s veto of the law, and the law took effect on Feb. 11. Among municipalities, more than 30 have PSL laws, including 13 in New Jersey and eight in California.

Rhode Island enacted the only new PSL law in 2017, the fewest number of such new laws in a calendar year since 2010. In Nevada last year, the legislature passed and the governor vetoed a PSL bill. In the lone paid sick leave ballot referendum in 2017, Albuquerque voters narrowly rejected a PSL initiative.

The eight new paid sick leave laws with effective dates in 2017 are in Arizona; Berkeley, CA; Santa Monica, CA; Cook County, IL; Chicago, IL; Minneapolis, MN; St. Paul, MN; and Vermont. Washington state’s new PSL law took effect on Jan. 1, 2018, and to more closely align with that, Seattle and Tacoma amended their sick leave ordinances, whereas Spokane totally nullified its law.

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