On May 21, 2024, Governor Ned Lamont signed into law Connecticut HB 5005- Public Act No. 24-8, which expands the state’s paid sick leave laws to nearly every private employer and employee in Connecticut over the next year three years. Beginning on January 1, 2025, employers with at least 25 employees will be required to provide up to forty (40) hours of paid sick leave annually to their employees. The law will be applied in phases according to the following schedule:
January 1, 2025: Employers with 25 or more employees must comply.
January 1, 2026: Employers with 11 or more employees must comply.
January 1, 2027: Employers with at least 1 employee will be required to comply.
Currently, Connecticut’s paid sick leave law applies to employers with at least fifty (50) employees who are employed as service workers in specific job classifications defined by statute. Under the original law, day and/or temporary workers were excluded from coverage.
Effective January 1, 2025, nearly all employees in Connecticut will be eligible for paid sick leave by January 1, 2027, with the exception of: “an individual who is a member of a construction-related tradesperson employee organization that is a party to a multiemployer health plan in which more than one employer is required to contribute to such plan and such plan is maintained pursuant to one or more collective bargaining agreements between a construction-related tradesperson employee organization or organizations and employers, or a seasonal employee.” A seasonal employee is defined under the law as an employee who works 120 days or less in any year.
Accrual of Sick Leave
In addition to expanding the pool of eligible employees, the Act also increases the rate at which paid sick leave accrues. Under the amended law, employees will accrue one (1) hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, an improvement from the original rate of one (1) hour for every 40 hours worked. The maximum accrual remains 40 hours annually. An employer may provide its employees with a greater amount of paid sick leave or provide paid sick leave at a faster rate than required by law. Consistent with current law, employees must be permitted to carry over up to forty (40) unused accrued hours of paid sick leave from the current year to the following year. However, an employee is not entitled to use more than the maximum accrual in any year. A new addition to the law, provides that in lieu of carryover, an employer may instead provide an employee with an amount of paid sick leave that meet or exceeds the statutory requirements that is immediately available for use at the beginning of the following year.
Use of Sick Leave
An employee shall be entitled to use any accrued paid sick leave on or after the 120th calendar day of employment. Employees must be paid their normal hourly wage or the state minimum wage in effect for the applicable pay period, whichever is greater. Employees exempt from overtime requirements shall be considered to work forty (40) hours per week for the purpose of paid sick accrual, with the exception of those employees whose normal work week is less than forty (40) hours, in which case these employees shall accrue paid sick leave based upon the hours worked in their normal work week.
The amendment also expands the permissible reasons to use paid sick leave to include post-COVID workplace considerations including:
- “For closure by order of a public official, due to a public health emergency, of either (A) an employer’s place of business, or (B) a family member’s school or place of care and
- For a determination by a health authority having jurisdiction, an employer of the employee, an employer of a family member or a health care provider, that such employee or family member poses a risk to the health of others due to such employee’s or family member’s exposure to a communicable illness, whether or not the employee or family member contracted the communicable illness.”
Employer Action Items
Employers are required to post information as well as provide written notice to each employee of the law no later than January 1, 2025, or at the time of hire, whichever is later. The Labor Commissioner shall provide a model poster and notice for employers to use. Additionally, for employers that do not maintain a physical workplace or for employees that telework or work through a web-based platform, employers must meet their posting and notice requirements by sending the information via electronic communication or by conspicuous posting on a web-based or application-based platform.
Employers should review their workplace handbooks and adjust their paid sick leave policies as necessary in order to comply with the new requirements. Employers should also review their recordkeeping practices as well, as new recordkeeping requirements are also included as part of the law. Employers are required to record the number of hours, if any, of paid sick leave accrued by or provided to the employee, and the number of hours, if any, of paid sick leave used by the employee during the calendar year on an employee’s wage statement. Employers must retain these records for a period of three (3) years.
Disclaimer: The information contained herein is not intended to be construed as legal advice, nor should it be relied on as such. Employers should closely monitor the rules and regulations specific to their jurisdiction(s) and should seek advice from counsel relative to their rights and responsibilities.