EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2017
Rules
- All employers with 5 or more employees EXCLUDING the owners/shareholders who
worked over 30 hours per week are required to follow the paid sick leave laws as of
January 1, 2017 - All employers with fewer than 5 employees EXCLUDING the owners/shareholders
are required to follow the paid sick leave laws as of January 1, 2018 - Only VT Employees are eligible for the paid sick leave
- Employees must be at least 18 YEARS OF AGE to qualify for this benefit
- Employee must work more than 20 weeks to qualify for this benefit however earned
time starts on the date of hire or January 1, 2017 whichever is first - Employees must work an average of 18 hours or more per week to qualify – this
would be calculated on a quarterly basis if needed (hours worked in the quarter
divided by 13 weeks) - Owners may exempt themselves
- Paid sick hours are accrued at a MINIMUM of 1 hour for every 52 hours worked or a
percentage of 0.0193 per hour worked - There is an annual MINIMUM cap of 24 hours for 2017 and 2018
- There is an annual MINIMUM cap of 40 hours for 2019 and beyond
- Employees will earn paid time off on all their hours regardless of paid time off, paid
sick hours, vacation hours, hours worked – ALL HOURS COUNT toward accrual - Salaried employees are presumed to work 40 hours per week and accrue hours
based on 40 hours per week - The sick hours cannot expire and can be rolled forward to the following year –
HOWEVER you can still mandate that they are only allowed to use 24 hours or 40
hours respectively depending on the year - As an employer, you can choose to pay out unused sick time at year end
- If an employee voluntarily quits, they FORFEIT their sick time, unless the employer
chooses to pay out - Hourly Employees are paid their regular hourly wage for sick time
- Commission and Tipped based employees are paid minimum wage at a MINIMUM
- Salaried employees are paid their hourly equivalent based on 40 hours per week
- Employers can mandate that paid time off not be used for ONE YEAR from the date
of hire - Employees currently employed will have an anniversary date for paid sick leave of
January 1st each year - Employers can require proof of absence from the employee if they wish to use the
sick time - Sick time can be used to care for themselves or close relative (spouse, in‐laws,
parents, siblings, children, grandchildren, grandparents, foster children) - IF EMPLOYERS ALREADY HAVE A SICK POLICY OR PTO/VACATION POLICY IN
PLACE THAT IS GREATER THAN THE MANDATE ‐ YOU CAN KEEP YOUR CURRENT
BENEFIT STRUCTURE - EMPLOYERS MUST KEEP RECORDS OF SICK TIME ACCRUAL UNDER BOTH THIS
MANDATE OR THEIR CURRENT BENEFIT – RECORDS MUST BE KEPT FOR 3 YEARS