Nevada Enacts Paid “Any Reason” Leave Law
By Michael J. Soltis, Esq.
While Maine may have been the first state to pass a paid “any reason” leave law, Nevada was a close second. Just a few weeks after the Maine bill was signed, Nevada Governor, Steve Sisolak, signed a bill on June 12 requiring private sector employers with at least 50 employees to allow employees to accrue paid leave which may be used for any reason. The Nevada law is effective Jan. 1, 2020.
The architecture of the Nevada law is similar to that of a typical PSL law minus the definitions related to appropriate use (e.g., a family member). Employees accrue .01923 hours of paid leave for each hour of work performed, which amounts to approximately 40 hours annually for an employee who works 40 hours weekly. An employer may limit an employee’s use of paid leave to 40 hours annually. Employees may carryover up to 40 hours of unused paid leave. An employer may choose to front load the leave or use the accrual method. Employers can require employees to use leave in a minimum of four-hour increments and must provide employees an accounting of available paid leave each payday. Read the Nevada law.
Temporary, seasonal, and on-call employees are not entitled to accrue paid leave. In addition–and this is the provision I suspect many Silver State employers will focus on initially–the law does not apply to an employer who “pursuant to a contract, policy, or collective bargaining agreement, or other agreement, provides employees with a policy for paid leave or a policy for paid time off to all scheduled employees” at the same accrual rate in the law.
A second state that has enacted a PTO mandate suggests that this approach might be the next step in the evolution of PSL laws. A bill is also pending in New York City to require employers to provide employees with paid vacation in addition to the already required paid sick and safe time.
***This article originally appeared on the Paid Sick Leave @Work site and was reposted on the DMEC website with their permission.***