HR Hotline: Are Short-Term Workers Eligible for Paid Sick Leave?

Q: My business employs several college students who work sporadically throughout the year, typically for short periods of time in the summer and during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. They don’t qualify for benefits like vacation time. Will these workers be entitled to paid sick leave under Connecticut’s new law?

A: Seasonal workers are not entitled to paid sick leave under Connecticut’s expanded sick leave law effective Jan. 1, 2025. 

However, it’s important to understand the definition of seasonal employee, and how that employee might switch to permanent status, thereby making them eligible for sick leave benefits.

A seasonal employee is someone who works for an employer for 120 days or fewer in any year. The number of hours they work per day is not relevant. 

The number of calendar days that they on your payroll also is not relevant for this determination. You simply count the number of days that the employee comes to work and gets paid. 

A seasonal employee is someone who works for an employer for 120 days or fewer in any year.

These are work days, and if they work 120 days or fewer in a year, they will be considered seasonal, and will not qualify for paid sick leave under the Connecticut statute. 

Let’s say you’ve decided to use the calendar year as your benefit year for accruing paid sick leave hours.

If you hire a college student who works five days in March for spring break, 60 days from through August, five days over Thanksgiving break, and 10 days over the winter holidays, for a total of 80 work days, that employee will not be eligible for paid sick leave. 

Note again that calendar days on the payroll do not matter here. 

When the year begins again on Jan. 1, this worker (if still employed by you) will start from zero as you begin counting their number of work days.

Permanent Status

How might this worker move to permanent status and immediately gain access to accrued paid sick hours? 

If the same employee described above takes a break from school and works 41 additional days at some point during the year, as soon as they work their 121st day, they lose seasonal status under the law, and become eligible for the paid sick hours already accrued throughout the year.

This makes it critical that employers track the number of days and hours their seasonal (or temporary, or per diem) employees work. 

You’ll recall that employees accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours that they work. 

Once your seasonal employee works that 121st day, they are eligible to use the paid sick hours already accrued. 

Once your seasonal employee works that 121st day and becomes permanent, they are eligible to use the paid sick hours that he already accrued during their seasonal status. 

So if, in the example above, the employee works 121 days, at seven hours per day, they worked 847 hours and thus accrued 28 hours of paid sick time that they may immediately use.

Once this worker loses seasonal status, they must also gain access to information regarding the number of hours they accrued and used, just like your other permanent employees. 

Note: The Connecticut Department of Labor answered a similar question in its recent FAQ. After communicating with agency officials, CBIA learned the agency intends to revise its answer in the near future. 

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HR problems or issues? Email or call CBIA’s Diane Mokriski at the HR Hotline (860.244.1900) | The HR Hotline is a free service for CBIA member companies and is intended to provide general information and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult with legal professionals for specific guidance for your specific situation.