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OLR Bill Analysis
sSB 12
AN ACT EXPANDING ACCESS TO 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
(e.g., food service workers, health care workers, and numerous others).
The bill expands the law by, among other things:
1. covering almost all private sector employers and employees,
except certain union construction workers and their employers;
2. broadening the range of family members for whom an employee
may use the leave;
3. increasing the rate at which employees accrue leave and
changing the waiting period before they may use it; and
4. broadening the reasons employees may use the leave to include
events like closures due to a public health emergency and
quarantines.
The bill limits the extent to which employers may require employees
to provide documentation to support their reasons for taking leave by
(1) limiting the details that can be required and (2) requiring an
employer to pay an employee’s out-of-pocket expenses for getting the
required documentation.
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 2024SB-00012-R000340-BA.DOCX
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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.
The bill specifies that the paid sick leave law does not preempt or
override the terms of any collective bargaining agreement entered into
on or after July 1, 2012, under the law that allows certain family child
care providers and personal care attendants (PCAs) to collectively
bargain with the state (§ 4, see “BACKGROUND”).
It also makes numerous minor, technical, and conforming changes.
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2024
§§ 1-3 — COVERED EMP LOYERS, EMPLOYEES, & FAMILY
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 expands the law’s coverage to nearly all private sector employers
regardless of their size, industry, or non-profit status. 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 and (2) the employees who are members of an employee
organization that is a party to one of these health plans.
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 covered by
current law. It also includes the day or temporary workers excluded
from the current law.
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, grandchildren, and anyone 2024SB-00012-R000340-BA.DOCX
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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 ACCRUAL AND AVAILABILITY
Leave Accrual
The bill increases the rate at which employees accrue leave, from one
hour per every 40 hours worked to one hour per every 30 hours worked.
It also specifies that employers may give their employees more paid sick
leave at a faster rate than required by the bill.
The bill requires that employees exempt from federal law’s overtime
pay requirements be presumed to work 40 hours per week for leave
accrual purposes unless their normal work week is less than 40 hours. If
it is, then their leave accrual must be based on their normal work week.
(Current law does not explicitly address this issue.)
Under the bill, employees maintain and may use their accrued 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 leave. The bill instead allows
employees to use their leave 100 days after they started their
employment. It also allows employees to use the leave regardless of how 2024SB-00012-R000340-BA.DOCX
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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. It also removes a provision in current law that
prohibits an employer from charging an employee for using their
accrued sick leave when the employee, with the employer’s mutual
consent, agrees to work additional hours or shifts during the same or
following pay period instead of the hours or shifts the employee missed.
Leave Carry Over
Current law entitles covered employees to carry over up to 40 unused
accrued hours of paid sick leave from one year to the next. Under the
bill, an employer may alternatively give an employee an amount of paid
sick leave that meets or exceeds the bill’s requirements and is available
for the employee to use immediately at the beginning of the next year,
instead of carrying over the unused paid sick leave.
Other Employer-Provided Leave
The current paid sick leave law deems an employer in compliance
with its requirements if the employer offers other paid leave (e.g.,
vacation or personal days) 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.
§ 3 — LEAVE USES & DOCUMENTATION
Leave Uses
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 2024SB-00012-R000340-BA.DOCX
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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 or the employee’s child 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 limits this authority by prohibiting employers
from requiring documentation that explains the nature of the illness or,
if the employee is taking leave due to family violence or sexual assault,
the details of the domestic violence or sexual assault (presumably, the
documentation must state that the employee needs the leave without
explaining why).
If the employer requires documentation but does not offer health
insurance, the bill requires the employer to pay all of the employee’s
out-of-pocket expenses for getting the documentation. If the employee
has health insurance, the employer must pay any costs that the
employee’s health care provider charges to the employee for the
documentation. The employer must pay any costs charged to the
employee for getting documentation for leave related to family violence
or sexual assault.
Under the bill, if a leave is taken due to a closure under a public health
emergency order or a quarantine, a written statement from the 2024SB-00012-R000340-BA.DOCX
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employee affirming that he or she is taking paid sick leave for one of
these reasons must be considered reasonable documentation. The
statement may be written in the employee’s first language and does not
have to be notarized or in any particular format.
§ 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 instead
requires employers to display this poster. It also requires employers 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-based 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-based or app-based platform. The bill also requires
the labor commissioner to create a model poster and written notice and
make them available to employers on the Department of Labor’s
website. It 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 an employee’s
accrued paid sick time and use for the calendar year. It 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. Failure to do so is a violation of the bill.
As under existing law, employers found by a preponderance of the
evidence to have violated these provisions are liable for a civil penalty
of up to $100 for each violation (CGS § 31-57v).
Lastly, the bill allows the labor commissioner to adopt regulations to
implement the paid sick leave law. Current law allows her to adopt
regulations about the law’s notice requirements. 2024SB-00012-R000340-BA.DOCX
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BACKGROUND
Family Child Care Providers and PCAs Who Collectively Bargain
With the State
State law allows certain family child care providers and PCAs to
collectively bargain with the state over their reimbursement rates,
benefits, payment procedures, contract grievance arbitration, training,
professional development, and other requirements and opportunities.
Covered child care providers include those paid by the state’s Care 4
Kids program to provide day care in (1) licensed family day care homes
or (2) their own homes for the children of neighbors or relatives.
Covered PCAs include those who provide personal care assistance to a
consumer under a state-funded program (e.g., the Medicaid Acquired
Brain Injury Waiver Program, Medicaid Personal Care Assistance
Waiver Program for adults with disabilities, or Connecticut Home Care
Program for Elders).
Related Bills
sSB 7, reported favorably by the Labor and Public Employees
Committee, is substantially similar to this bill, although it does not
include the provision on family child care providers and PCAs who
collectively bargain with the state.
sHB 5005, reported favorably by the Labor and Public Employees
Committee, similarly expands the paid sick leave law, although among
other things, it phases in the expansion to smaller employers over two
additional years and requires employers to give employees 40 hours of
sick leave annually, rather than having them accrue the time over the
course of their work hours.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Labor and Public Employees Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 8 Nay 4 (03/21/2024)