By: Johanna T. Wise and Andrew J. Masak

While most of the political pundits, and indeed the country, are busy analyzing the election results, four new localities passed paid sick leave laws.  As we previously blogged, the current landscape of paid sick leave laws is a patchwork of varying regulations, causing headaches for many employers.  And compliance isn’t getting any easier as the number of states and cities with paid sick leave laws rises.

Paid sick leave laws were on ballots and passed in: Massachusetts; Trenton, NJ; Montclair, NJ; and Oakland, CA (while California already has a paid sick leave law, Oakland now expands on it).  Specifically:

Massachusetts:  Allows employees to accrue a minimum of one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.  Caps paid sick time at 40 hours annually.

Oakland, CA:  Gives employee’s one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.  Current California law gives workers a minimum of 24 hours of paid sick leave.

Montclair, NJ:  Gives employees one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.

Trenton, NJ:  Gives employees one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.

The tide is certainly rising on the number of paid sick leave laws throughout the country.  At the end of 2013, only one state and six cities had such laws.  As it stands today, three states and sixteen cities have sick leave laws on the books.  New Jersey now has eight cities with paid sick leave laws, making it the clear municipal leader in the area (Jersey City, Newark, East Orange, Irvington, Passaic, Paterson, Montclair, and Trenton).  And, while the list of regulations employers face continues to surge and business considerations mount, employers are wise to review their current policies and consider how they will record and monitor employees’ hours for purposes of determining accruals and eligibility.

For a more detailed analysis of these laws, please see the Management Alert written by our colleagues, Joshua Seidman and Anne Bider.

For additional information on paid sick leave laws, contact the authors, any member of Seyfarth’s Absence Management and Accommodation Team, or your Seyfarth attorney.