Small Fixes Offer Big Help with Paid Sick Leave Law

04.04.2014
Issues & Policies

Small tweaks to Connecticut’s paid sick leave law could make it easier for Connecticut employers to administer it—which is why the legislature should pass the commonsense fixes contained in HB 5269.

HB 5269 leaves the paid sick leave benefit untouched but simplifies reporting and recordkeeping for employers. The Commerce Committee overwhelming approved the bill, which now needs the Labor Committee’s approval before it can go to the entire General Assembly.

Connecticut’s paid sick leave law applies to businesses, other than manufacturers, with 50 or more employees. Here’s how HB 5269 makes the law easier to administer:

  • Gives employers the flexibility to administer the law in a 365-day period other than a calendar year. (For example, many employers use a fiscal year for recordkeeping.) This will allow businesses to more efficiently track paid sick leave simultaneously with other employee benefits.
  • Makes paid sick leave and FMLA employee reporting identical: Unlike FMLA, which has employers reporting their number of workers in a one-year period, the paid sick leave law requires businesses to report their number of employees over a three-month period. That means employers who’ve never had more than 49 employees at any given moment must include employees who left their job and were replaced within the same period–making them appear to have 50+ employees and be subject to the law.
    There’s no evidence that a once-a-year reporting methodology, as found in FMLA, will result in employers attempting to skirt their obligations by terminating and rehiring employees before and after the reporting date.    
  • Corrects an error that imposes the paid sick leave law on some manufacturers with multiple locations rather than excluding all manufacturers as intended.    

With just over a month to go in the legislative session, legislators should act quickly to make these fixes to the paid sick leave mandate.

While little can be done about the cost of complying with the law, legislators that supported the measure can help improve the state’s business climate by making sure the law is as easy for businesses to administer as possible. 

CBIA urges its members to email or call their legislators to support HB 5269.

For more information, contact CBIA’s Eric Gjede at 860.244.1931 | eric.gjede@cbia.com | @egjede

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