The good news about the new paid sick leave mandate is businesses in New Jersey will have to follow only one set of rules; unfortunately, some significant questions remain about what exactly those rules will mean.
NJBIA was able to secure amendments that said the new paid sick leave law would preempt any of the 11 existing local ordinances. As attorney Jeffrey Corradino of Jackson Lewis P.C. explains, the original bill said the state law was merely a “floor,” and if any other jurisdiction gives employees more, the business would have to give their employees the more generous benefit as well.
But having only one set of rules to follow does not answer all of businesses’ questions. In fact, Corradino pointed to three such questions at NJBIA’s “Hard Decisions” seminar in June. These questions have no answers right now, but will need to be clarified when the state issues regulations. The law does not take effect until the end of October, so there is still time to get the answers.
Meanwhile, here are three questions Corradino is asking.
Question 1: What if an employee works remotely?
The law applies to employees working for an employer in the state of New Jersey. What about employees who work remotely in another state? For example, would the law apply to an employee who works at home in Pennsylvania for a company headquartered in, say, Mercer County?
“It’s not exactly clear whether or not this statute can cover them,” Corradino said. “There’s no guidance, really, on remote employees.”
Need More? Join us for A Crash Course in New Jersey’s Paid Sick & Family Leave Laws, Sept. 28
About l 3.9 million U.S. employees work from home at least half of the time, according to FlexJobs. If the home is in New Jersey, then the statute will apply. But employers need clarification on other scenarios.
Question 2: Does sick time accrue for hours paid but not worked?
The law says employees will accrue one hour of sick time for every 30 hours they work until they reach 40 hours for the year. So, do employees accrue time for hours that were paid but not worked, such as vacation and holidays?
Corradino also pointed out the law does not distinguish between exempt and non-exempt employees. Does that mean employers now have to keep track of the number of hours their exempt employees worked? Corradino said some local ordinances assumed that an exempt employee works 40 hours per week. However with flex time and quality of life in the forefront, there are more “part-time” exempt employees than ever before. It wouldn’t make sense to assume those employees working less than full-time work 40 hours per week. What the state will do remains to be seen.
Question 3: What about non-exempt employees whose pay is not based solely on hours worked.?
The law requires any paid sick leave taken by the employee must be paid at the same rate as their regular salary or wages. But what about employees whose compensation varies from week to week, such as those who work on commission or tips, or those paid piece-rate?
Corradino suspects the state will create some sort of look-back period to calculate the average annual rate. For instance, take the last three months of pay for such an employee and divide by the hours they worked to calculate their PSL rate.
Right now, however, the law does not indicate what to do.
What about part time employees that work in three different offices?
10 hours in each of the three offices.
after accumulating hours worked to get 40 hours paid from each employee, the part time employee gets 120 paid hours in total?
So you have an employee that works only 30 hours per week in total and gets 4 weeks paid leave???
Thank you for your interest in our article. The law defines employer as “any person, firm, business, educational institution, nonprofit agency, corporation, limited liability company.” It goes on to say that “each employer shall provide earned sick leave to each employee working for the employer in the State.” So, the responsibility rests with the employer, not the location. If the employee is still reporting to one employer (and not being shared by multiple employers), they would only be able to accrue a maximum of 40 hours. We hope this helps. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us at member411@njbia.org.
What prevents me from giving them all 1 less week vacation time and give them all 1 week paid sick time?
We’d love to discuss your question with you in greater depth. Please feel free to contact us at member411@njbia.org.
Good afternoon
The company I work for and represent is established in Pennsylvania, however, we have employees working remotely in NJ, hired to do business in NJ. We do currently have a paid sick leave policy in place; do we need to perform to NJ requirements due to having our employees doing business in NJ -sales? The current act is indeed not clear about these scenarios, as you just pointed out. I will appreciate your input.
We currently have a generous PTO system. I read “Employers with existing PTO policies may utilize those policies to satisfy the requirements of the act as long as employees can use the time off as required by the act”. Our employees can use their PTO days however they see fit. How to do we make it “satisfy the act”. My concern is making the carry over requirement work.
Our office is in NJ but our part time staff live and work in PA, are we required to provide them with sick time under the NJ law?
This is just another Democratic based entitlement law that will continue to have companies automate more of their operations and eliminate jobs. New Jersey is not Small Business Friendly and that is why more and more are leaving. Great Job Murphy!!
hi, we have part time employed worked under 25 hrs. per week and they do not have paid sick time. What does this mean under the NJ new law
My husband works for a trucking company in New Jersey but lives in Pennsylvania…will he get sick time…