Effective February 21, 2025, all Michigan employers will be required to provide employees with paid sick time under the Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA).
The ESTA replaces the current rules under the Michigan Paid Medical Leave Act (PMLA). While both the Michigan Senate and House introduced bills earlier this year to modify ESTA and the Michigan House passed its bill, at this point it appears unlikely that either the new Senate bill or the new House bill will become law prior to February 21, 2025, meaning the ESTA will go into effect as currently written.
Generally, the ESTA requires that employers provide Michigan-based hourly employees with 1 hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked up to 72 paid hours per year (or for employers with fewer than 10 employees, up to 40 hours of sick time per year would be paid and up to 32 hours would be unpaid). The ESTA provides that salaried employees are generally assumed to work 40 hours per week for the purposes of determining paid sick time.
The ESTA also established rules for implementation of this time, which differ substantially from the rules of PMLA. Some rules include the unlimited carry over of accrued but unused sick time, notice requirements which prohibit employers from requesting medical documentation unless the employee has used more than three (3) consecutive days of sick time, record keeping requirements for a three year period, and displaying a poster issued by the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity setting forth the general requirements of the ESTA.
Employers are advised to review existing policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the ESTA and to train managers and human resource professionals on implementation of the ESTA-compliant policies.
