New legislation significantly changes the CT Paid Sick Leave Law (CPSLL), making it applicable to nearly all public and private employers in Connecticut for the first time and changing some key provisions. These changes will require a change to any sick leave policies that are not in compliance, so employers must pay close attention to these changes. Broadly speaking, this law requires employers to provide paid sick leave to employees for various reasons, but is not to be confused with Connecticut Family and Medical Leave Act (CFMLA) or Connecticut Paid Leave (CTPL).
Key Change: Nearly all Employers Will Be Covered
Employers that previously were not covered by this law are likely to be covered in the near future. Previously, the law only applied to employers with 50 or more employees in the state. Beginning January 1, 2025, the threshold will be 25 or more employees in the state; one year later, the threshold drops to 11 or more employees in the state, and one year after that, it will apply to employers of even one employee in the state. (Take note, employers of a family nanny, housekeeper, or personal care attendant!) Employee count will be determined by the employer’s payroll for the week containing January 1st each year (this previously was October 1st).
Further, manufacturers and certain non-profits were previously excluded from coverage; those exclusions are removed under the new legislation. The only stated exclusions now are employers participating in certain construction multiemployer health plans and self-employed individuals.
Key Change: Nearly All Employees Will Be Covered
Previously, the CPSLL applied only to “service workers,” certain categories of hourly employees. Now, virtually all employees will be covered, regardless of function and whether they are exempt or non-exempt. Seasonal employees, defined as employees working fewer than 120 days per year, are excluded. Day or temporary workers used to be excluded from coverage; it appears that their coverage will now be determined by whether they work fewer than 120 days per year and therefore meet the definition of a “seasonal employee.”
Key Change: Employees Will Accrue and Have Access to Leave Faster
Previously, the CPSLL provided for an accrual rate of at one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked. The legislation changes this to one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Exempt employees are presumed to work 40 hours per week unless their normal workweek is less. Of course, employers are free to be more generous. Employers may provide this benefit through accrual or a lump sum. Employers must allow for carryover, unless they provide a lump sum at the beginning of the next year.
Under the existing law, new employees begin accruing paid sick leave immediately, but do not have the right to use it until they have worked at least 680 hours for the employer. Under the new legislation, employees have the right to use paid sick leave starting with the 120th calendar day of employment.
Key Change: The Reasons an Employee Can Take Leave are Broadened
The CPSLL allows for leave for a variety of reasons beyond actual illness of the employee. Previously, it allowed for leave for various reasons for the employee or the employee’s spouse or child. With the changes, eligible family members now include the employee’s “spouse, sibling, child, grandparent, grandchild or parent of an employee or an individual related to the employee by blood or affinity whose close association the employee shows to be equivalent to those family relationships,” including foster, adoptive, step relations, and in-law relations. Covered children and grandchildren are now eligible regardless of age.
Additional reasons for leave provided by the new legislation include reasons related to public health emergency closures and for situations where the employee or family member poses a risk to other due to exposure to a communicable illness, whether or not the employee or family member has actually contracted the illness.
Key Change: Employee Notice and Documentation Provisions are Removed
Provisions of the law allowing employers to require advance notice of leave when the need for leave is reasonably foreseeable and allowing employers to request documentation that the leave is taken for a permissible purpose have been removed. Employers are now expressly prohibited from requesting such documentation. These two changes are likely to cause significant headaches for employers trying to manage employee attendance – this essentially allows for last-minute callouts with no employer recourse, even if the need for the absence was known in advance.
Key Change: Notice Requirement on Employer/Recordkeeping
Employers must post notices on this law in English and Spanish and must also provide written notice to each employee by January 1, 2025, or the date of hire, whichever is later.
Employees must keep records on accrual and use of paid sick leave for at least three years.
Miscellaneous Provisions
Employers are permitted to provide sick leave on alternate terms, such as PTO programs, as long as employees may access the leave for all the purposes and on the same terms as provided for in this law. Employees retain their paid sick leave if they are transferred to another unit of the company or if their employment is assumed by a successor employer. The law does not grandfather in the terms of existing collective bargaining agreements, meaning unionized employers must comply with this law if applicable to them, even if they have a collective bargaining agreement with different terms.
Action Steps
Employers with at least 25 employees in Connecticut should immediately evaluate their paid sick leave or paid time off policies to determine whether they are in compliance. Remember that even a simple notice requirement will be problematic under this legislation, so most policies will need revisions even if they are very generous in their terms. Employers should work with counsel to update these policies before January 1, 2025. Employers with 11-25 employees should prepare to take these steps by January 1, 2026, and smaller employers should prepare to take these steps by January 1, 2027.
The labor and employment attorneys at Berchem Moses PC can work with you to update your policies to comply with all applicable laws.