Q. Do I need to provide paid sick leave to employees in New Jersey?
A. Last week, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law the New Jersey Paid Sick Leave Act, mandating paid sick leave for full and part-time workers in the Garden State. Similar to the laws in other states, the New Jersey law provides for employees to earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Employees may use up to 40 hours of earned sick leave in a benefit year. They may also carry over up to 40 hours of earned sick leave from one year to the next. Earned sick leave is not paid upon termination, unless a company policy or collective bargaining agreement provides otherwise.
Employees begin to accrue sick leave on their hire date, and are eligible to use them beginning on the 120th calendar day of employment. The employee may subsequently use earned sick leave as soon as it is accrued. Employees must be paid for earned sick leave at the same rate of pay with the same benefits as the employee normally earns, so long as the pay rate is at least minimum wage.
Earned sick leave may be used for the employee’s own health condition and time off for preventative medical care, and to take care of or coordinate preventative medical care for family members. The term “family member” is defined broadly to include the employee’s child, grandchild, sibling, spouse, domestic or civil union partner, parent, grandparent, in-law, grandparent or sibling of the employee’s spouse, domestic or civil union partner, and “any other individual related by blood to the employee or whose close association with the employee is equivalent of a family relationship.”
Employees also may use earned sick leave for absences as a result of the employee or a family member being the victim of domestic or sexual violence. In addition, employers must allow employees to use earned sick leave for school closures and to attend school conferences. Employees may not be subject to discipline for using earned sick leave.
If the need to use earned sick leave is foreseeable, an employer may require up to seven days of advance notice before the leave is taken. Employers must make a reasonable effort to schedule the use of earned sick leave in a manner that does not unduly disrupt the company’s operations. If the employee uses earned sick leave for three or more consecutive days, the employer may require a doctor’s note supporting the need for leave.
Companies may not require employees to find replacements as a condition of using earned sick leave. While the employer and the employee may mutually agree to allow the employee to work additional hours or shifts to make up the missed time, employees are not required to do so.
What Employers Should Do
The Paid Sick Leave Act goes into effect on November 2, 2018, and preempts all existing city and county sick leave laws in the state. To get ready for the new Act, employers should analyze their current paid time off policies or draft a new earned sick leave policy to ensure that time off is accrued and may be used in the manner provided by the Act. New Jersey employers also should review their record-keeping policies to make sure that they retain records documenting hours worked and earned sick leave taken by employees for at least five years.
