Nebraska Voters Approve Paid Sick Leave

Nebraska voters have approved a ballot initiative (Initiative Measure 436), which creates the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (the Act) and will provide paid sick time to employees. Employers must begin providing paid sick leave on Oct. 1, 2025.

What you need to do

• Review the requirements of the law and create applicable policies and procedures for employees to begin accruing paid sick leave on Oct. 1, 2025.
  
  
• Display the required poster by Oct. 1, 2025.
  
  
• Provide the written notice required to employees by Sept. 15, 2025, or the commencement of their employment -- whichever is later.
  
  
• Train supervisors and HR personnel on the requirements.
  
  
• Watch for any model notices and posters from the Nebraska Department of Labor.

What you need to know
Covered Employers and Amount of Paid Sick Leave
The law applies to all employers. However, the amount of paid sick leave that employees must be permitted to accrue on an annual basis depends on the size of the employer.

* Small business means an employer with fewer than twenty employees during a given week, including full-time, part-time, or temporary employees. Small business does not include an employer that maintained twenty or more employees on its payroll in each of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year. Year means a regular and consecutive twelve-month period as determined by the employer. See the text of the law for further details.

Covered Employees

The law covers an individual employed by an employer for 80 or more hours per year but does not include an employee who is subject to the federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act.

Accrual Rate

Employees must accrue at least one hour of paid sick time for every thirty hours worked. An employee will begin to accrue paid sick time at the commencement of their employment or Oct. 1, 2025 -- whichever is later. The law does not address whether employers can cap overall accrual.

Note: Executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales employees who are exempt from overtime requirements under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act will be assumed to work 40 hours per work week for purposes of earned paid sick leave accrual. When an employee's normal work week is less than forty hours, earned paid sick leave will accrue based upon that normal work week.

Carryover

An employer must either:

·       Carryover accrued paid sick time to the following year; or

·       Pay an employee for unused paid sick time and provide the employee with an amount of paid sick time that meets or exceeds the requirements of the law and is available for immediate use at the beginning of the subsequent year.

Frontloading

An employer may provide all paid sick time that an employee is expected to accrue within a year at the beginning of that year. The law is unclear on whether employers are permitted to frontload a specific number of paid sick leave hours annually in order to avoid carryover requirements.

Rate of Pay

When employees use sick time, they must be paid the same hourly rate and with the same benefits, including health care benefits, as the employee typically earns during hours worked.  The rate cannot be less than the state minimum wage. The law does not otherwise address how to calculate the rate. The Department of Labor may publish additional guidance in the future.

Pay Statement Requirements

Employers must ensure that the following amounts are recorded in, or attached to, the employee's paycheck:

·       Paid sick time available to the employee;

·       Paid sick time taken by the employee to date in the year; and

·       The amount of pay the employee has received for paid sick time.

Use

Paid sick leave may be used in hourly increments or the smallest increment that the employer's payroll system uses to account for absences or use of other time. An employee may use earned paid sick leave as it is accrued and when an employer chooses to loan them earned paid sick in advance of accrual. The law allows a small business to limit annual use to 40 hours. Other employers can limit annual use to 56 hours.

An employee may use paid sick leave:

·       To care for their own or a family member's:

o   Mental or physical illness, injury, health condition; or

o   Medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition, or preventative medical care;

·       To attend a meeting necessitated by their child's mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition at a school or place where the child is receiving care;

·       When their business or their child's school or place of care is closed by order of a public official due to a public health emergency; or

·       To self-isolate or care for themself or a family member when health authorities or a health care provider determines that the employee or the employee's family member's presence in the community may jeopardize the health of others because of their exposure to a communicable disease -- whether or not the individual has contracted the disease.

See the text of the law for further details.

Definition of Family Member

Covered family members include the following (regardless of age):

• A biological, adopted, or foster child, a stepchild, a legal ward, or a child to whom the employee stands in the place of a parent;
• A biological, foster, step, or adoptive parent or a legal guardian of an employee or an employee's spouse;
• A person who stood in the place of a parent to the employee or the employee's spouse when the employee or employee's spouse was a minor child;
• A person to whom the employee is legally married under the laws of any state;
• A grandparent, grandchild, or sibling, whether of a biological, foster, adoptive, or step relationship, of the employee or the employee's spouse; or
• Any other individual related by blood to the employee or whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.
  

Employee Notice

When practical, an employee must make an oral request for paid sick leave that includes the expected duration of the absence.

Documentation

For more than three consecutive paid sick days, an employer may require the following reasonable documentation:

• Documentation signed by a health care professional that indicates the paid sick time is (or was) necessary; or
  
  
• A written statement from the employee that indicates they or a family member are taking (or took) paid sick leave for a qualifying purpose when:
  

Nondisclosure

Unless required by law, employers:

• Are prohibited from requiring the details of an employee's (or their family member's) health information to be disclosed as a condition of providing the required paid sick time;
  
  
• Must ensure health information in their possession that is related to an employee or the employee's family member is:
  

Employer Notice

An employer that requires notice of the need to use paid sick time must provide a written policy that contains reasonable procedures for employees to provide notice. The Act prohibits an employer that has not provided a copy of its written policy for giving notice from denying an employee the right to use earned paid sick leave based on non-compliance with such a policy.

Employers must provide employees written notice at the commencement of the employee's employment or by Sept. 15, 2025 (whichever is later) of the following:

• Beginning Oct.r 1, 2025, employees are entitled to paid sick time;
  
  
• The amount of paid sick time and the terms of its use guaranteed under the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act;
  
  
• Retaliatory action against employees who request or use paid sick time is prohibited;
  
  
• Each employee has the right to file a suit or complaint if paid sick time as required by the Act is: 1) denied by the employer or 2) the employee is subjected to retaliatory personnel action for requesting or taking paid sick time;
  
  
• The contact information for the Nebraska Department of Labor, where questions about rights and responsibilities under the Act can be answered.

The notice must be provided in English and any language that is the first language spoken by at least five percent of the employer's workforce -- if the Department has provided a model notice in such language.

Poster Requirements

Employers must display a poster containing the information required under the Act in a visible and accessible place in each establishment where employees are employed. The poster must be in English and any language that is the first language spoken by at least five percent of the employer's workforce -- if the Department has provided posters in such language.

The Nebraska Department of Labor shall create the required model notices and posters.

Note: If an employer does not maintain a physical workplace or an employee teleworks or performs work through a web-based or app-based platform, the employer must provide the poster via electronic communication or a visible posting in the web-based or app-based platform.

Retention of Paid Sick Leave Benefits

An employee who is transferred to a separate division, entity, or location, but stays employed by the same employer must retain and be able to use their paid sick leave. Additionally, an employee that is separated and then rehired within 12 months by the same employer must have their previously accrued and unused earned paid sick leave reinstated. The employee is also entitled to use accrued earned paid sick leave and accrue additional earned paid sick leave at the re-commencement of their employment.

Existing Paid Leave Policies