Researcher: LRH Page 1 4/9/24
OLR Bill Analysis
sHB 5005
AN ACT EXPANDING PAID SICK DAYS IN THE STATE.
SUMMARY
This bill expands the state’s paid sick leave law in numerous ways.
The current paid sick leave law generally requires certain employers
with at least 50 employees to give up to 40 hours of paid sick leave
annually to their “service workers” in certain specified occupations. The
bill expands the law by, among other things:
1. covering nearly all private sector employees and employers with
at least 25 employees in 2025, those with at least 11 employees in
2026, and then those with at least one employee in 2027 (the bill
exempts certain union construction workers and their
employers);
2. broadening the range of family members for whom an employee
may use the leave;
3. requiring covered employers to annually give their employees 40
hours of the leave at one time, instead of having employees
accrue the leave based on how many hours they worked;
4. allowing employers to meet the bill’s requirements by giving
employees a one-time payment that equals the greater of 40 hours
of either their normal hourly wage or the minimum wage;
5. broadening the reasons employees may use the leave to include
events like closures due to a public health emergency and
quarantines; and
6. prohibiting employers from requiring their employees to provide
any documentation to support their reasons for taking leave. 2024HB-05005-R000357-BA.DOCX
Researcher: LRH Page 2 4/9/24
It expands current employer notice requirements by requiring
employers to give written notice to each employee about the paid sick
leave law. The bill also sets employer recordkeeping requirements that,
among other things, require (1) employee “pay stubs” to include an
employee’s accrued paid sick time and use for the calendar year and (2)
employers to maintain their paid sick leave records for three years.
It also makes numerous minor, technical, and conforming changes.
EFFECTIVE DATE: January 1, 2025
§§ 1-3 — COVERED EMPLOYER S, EMPLOYEES, & FAMI LY
MEMBERS
Employers and Employees
The current paid sick leave law covers private sector employers with
at least 50 employees, except manufacturers and certain non-profits. The
bill gradually expands the law’s coverage to nearly all private sector
employers regardless of their size, industry, or non-profit status by
extending coverage to employers with at least 25 employees starting
January 1, 2025; then to employers with at least 11 employees starting
January 1, 2026; and to all employers starting January 1, 2027.
However, it exempts (1) employers that participate in a multi-
employer health plan requiring contributions from multiple employers
and maintained under a collective bargaining agreement between
employers and a construction-related trade person employee
organization (e.g., union) or organizations; (2) the employees who are
members of an employee organization that is a party to one of these
health plans; and (3) self-employed people (as the bill does not define
“self-employed,” it is unclear if this exempts the self-employed from
having to give paid sick leave to their employees, if they have any).
The bill also expands current law to cover all private sector
employees (except for the union construction workers described above),
rather than only the specified “service worker” occupations (e.g., home
health aides, nurses, security guards, janitors, and cashiers) covered by
current law. It also includes the day or temporary workers excluded
from the current law. 2024HB-05005-R000357-BA.DOCX
Researcher: LRH Page 3 4/9/24
Family Members (§§ 1 & 3)
Current law allows covered employees to use paid sick leave to care
for their minor or disabled child (or child for whom they stand in place
of a parent) or spouse. The bill broadens the range of “family members”
for whom employees may use paid sick leave to include their adult
children, siblings, parents, grandparents, and grandchildren, and
anyone related to the employee by blood or affinity whose close
association the employee shows to be equivalent to those family
members.
Under the bill, siblings and grandchildren include those relations by
blood, marriage, adoption, or foster care, as is the case for children
under current law. Parents include a biological, foster, or adoptive
parent, stepparent, parent-in-law, legal guardian, and someone who
stands or stood in the place of a parent.
Under current law, a “spouse” is a husband or wife, as the case may
be. Under the bill, a spouse is instead (1) someone who is legally married
to an employee under the laws of any state, or (2) an employee’s
domestic partner registered under the laws of any state or political
subdivision.
§ 2 — LEAVE PROVISION AND AVAILABILITY
Leave Provision
Under current law employees accrue one hour of leave per every 40
hours worked. The bill instead requires covered employers to give their
employees 40 hours of leave annually. When an employer must give an
employee the leave depends on when the employee began working for
the employer, as shown in the table below. (It is unclear how this
schedule would apply to those employers whose coverage is phased in
during 2026 and 2027.)
Table: When to Provide 40 Hours of Leave Annually Under the Bill
When Employee Began Working
for the Employer
When the Employer Must Give the
Employee 40 Hours of Leave
At least 180 days before January 1, 2025 January 1, 2025
Less than 180 days before January 1, 2025 On the employee’s 180th day of
employment with the employer 2024HB-05005-R000357-BA.DOCX
Researcher: LRH Page 4 4/9/24
When Employee Began Working
for the Employer
When the Employer Must Give the
Employee 40 Hours of Leave
On or after January 1, 2025 On the employee’s 180th day of
employment with the employer
The bill requires that employees maintain their received paid sick
leave when (1) they transfer to a separate division, entity, or location
with the same employer or (2) a different employer succeeds or replaces
an existing employer. Current law does not explicitly address either of
these issues.
Leave Availability
Under current law, employees must work 680 hours for their
employer before they can use their accrued leave. The bill instead allows
employees to use their leave immediately. It also allows employees to
use the leave regardless of how much they work by eliminating a
provision in current law that allows employees to use leave only if they
average at least 10 work hours per week in the most recent complete
quarter.
Replacements and Shift Swapping
The bill prohibits employers from requiring employees taking paid
sick leave to look for or find a replacement to cover the hours they were
scheduled to work.
Leave Carryover
Current law entitles covered employees to carry over up to 40 unused
accrued hours of paid sick leave from one year to the next, but prohibits
them from using more than 40 hours of the leave per year. The bill
removes these provisions and does not otherwise specify how unused
leave time must be handled.
Other Employer-Provided Leave & Alternative Compliance
The current paid sick leave law deems an employer in compliance
with its requirements if the employer offers other paid leave that the
employee can use for the same reasons allowed under the paid sick
leave law. The bill requires that employees also be able to use the other
paid leave under the same conditions for the exception to apply. 2024HB-05005-R000357-BA.DOCX
Researcher: LRH Page 5 4/9/24
It also deems an employer in compliance if the employer gives an
employee a one-time payment equal to 40 hours of work at a pay rate
that equals the greater of either the employee’s normal hourly wage or
the state minimum wage.
§ 3 — LEAVE USES & DOCUMEN TATION
The bill expands the reasons why an employee may use sick leave to
include when the employer’s place of business or a family member’s
school or place of care is closed by order of a public official due to a
public health emergency.
It also allows for leave if the employee or a family member is under
quarantine (i.e., when it has been determined that the employee or
family member poses a risk to others’ health due to their exposure to a
communicable disease, regardless of whether they actually contracted
it). The determination for a quarantine must be made by a health
authority with jurisdiction, a health care provider, or the employee’s or
family member’s employer.
Under current law, an employee may use paid sick leave for
preventative medical care for themselves or a covered family member.
The bill specifies that this includes preventative care for mental or
physical health.
Current law also allows an employee to use paid sick leave if he or
she was a victim of family violence or sexual assault and needs leave to
do certain things (e.g., get counseling or participate in civil or criminal
proceedings). The bill allows employees to use the leave if their family
member is a victim of family violence or sexual assault and needs to do
these same things.
Documentation
Under certain circumstances, current law allows employers to
require employees to provide documentation to support their reasons
for taking leave. The bill instead prohibits employers from requiring any
documentation showing that the employee took the leave for one of the
reasons allowed. 2024HB-05005-R000357-BA.DOCX
Researcher: LRH Page 6 4/9/24
§ 6 — EMPLOYER NOTIC E AND RECORDS
Current law requires employers to notify employees about certain
provisions of the paid sick leave law when they are hired (e.g., how
leave accrues and how it may be used) and allows them to meet this
requirement by displaying a poster in the workplace. The bill requires
employers to display this poster and additionally requires them to give
each employee written notice about these provisions by January 1, 2025,
or when an employee is hired, whichever is later.
If the employer does not maintain a physical workplace, or an
employee teleworks or works through a web- or app-based platform,
the employer must meet the notice requirement by sending the
information through electronic communication or conspicuously
posting it on a web- or app-based platform. The bill eliminates a
provision in current law that requires the commissioner to administer
the current law’s notice requirements within available appropriations.
The bill requires that employee “pay stubs” include how many (1)
hours of paid sick leave the employee used during the calendar year and
(2) employees to whom the employer gave the one-time payment
instead of paid sick days during the calendar year. (It is unclear why an
employee’s pay stub would need to indicate how many employees the
employer gave a one-time payment to). The bill also requires employers
to maintain these paid sick leave records for three years and give the
labor commissioner access to them, with appropriate notice and at a
mutually agreeable time, to monitor compliance with the bill’s
recordkeeping requirements.
Lastly, the bill allows the labor commissioner to adopt regulations to
implement the paid sick leave law. Current law only allows her to adopt
regulations about the law’s notice requirements.
BACKGROUND
Related Bills
sSB 7 and sSB 12, reported favorably by the Labor and Public
Employees Committee, similarly expand the paid sick leave law,
although, among other things, they (1) do not phase in their expansion 2024HB-05005-R000357-BA.DOCX
Researcher: LRH Page 7 4/9/24
to smaller employers; (2) continue to require that employees accrue their
leave based on their hours worked, rather than annually providing a set
amount all at once; and (3) do not allow employers to meet the sick leave
requirement by giving employees a lump-sum payment.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Labor and Public Employees Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 8 Nay 4 (03/21/2024)