If you’ve been waiting to hear the status of the Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA) before updating your leave policy, you’re in good company.
We had hoped that there would be some movement on this during the end of the year lame duck legislative session but weren’t that lucky. Fortunately, the new legislature seems to be making this a priority. The House has already passed legislation that would change several key elements. Some of those items are listed below:
• Excludes employers with 50 or fewer employees.
• Excludes employeees who work less than 25 weeks per year.
• Excludes employees who regularly work less than 25 hours a week.
• Allows employers to limit the carrryover of ESTA time to 72 hours.
• Allows employers to provide paid earned sick time at the beginning of a benefit year and avoid the carryover requirement.
There are more details in the House bill, but these are the ones that we found addressed the most problematic aspects of the original bill when discussing the changes with our customers.
Now it’s up to the Senate to act before the current law goes into effect on February 21st.
If you haven’t nudged your state Senator, now is the time.
We’ll keep you posted on additional changes as they come along. In the meantime, here’s a link to a matrix produced by the Chamber of Commerce detailing the components of the two bills:
Kevin Brozovich
SPHR | CHIEF PEOPLE ADVISOR
Meet Kevin Brozovich, energetic entrepreneur, people-focused team-builder and HR practitioner-turned consultant. For almost 10 years, Kevin was Founder and Chief People Officer of HRM Innovations, a Kalamazoo-based Human Resources consulting firm many would consider the top in the region. After pulling his hair out making daily decisions about running the business (does it matter where the coffee comes from?), Kevin joined forces with the Rose Street Advisors team so he could solely focus on what he loves most: working with clients.
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