Last year the Vermont House passed a
bill, H.187, to require Vermont employers to provide a minimum number
of paid sick days to their employees. However, the Senate did not
act on the bill before the session ended in May. As this year began,
the Senate took up the bill and made several changes after hearing
testimony from business leaders, labor representatives, and many
employees who do not currently have this benefit. The subsequent
changes made it easier on small businesses to comply with the
requirements of the bill. Last week I joined with the majority of my
House colleagues to concur with the Senate's changes and pass the
amended bill, which Governor Shumlin has indicated he will sign into
law.
Why is this bill needed? While about
half of Vermont's private sector employers offer some form of paid
sick leave, less than half of employees working for companies with
less than 20 employees have any paid sick leave. Around 60,000
workers have to take unpaid time off if they or their child or other
family member gets sick. Since most of these workers are in minimum
or low wage jobs, they can hardly afford to do so. In many cases they
go to work sick or send their child to school sick. So this is a
public health and safety matter as well as a labor issue.
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Gov. Peter Shumlin signs the Paid Sick Leave bill into law
in the Vermont House chamber on March 10, 2016.
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Beginning January 1, 2017, the bill
requires employers to provide every employee at least one hour of
paid sick leave for every 52 hours worked. Up to 24 hours can be
accrued annually during the first two years of implementation.
Beginning January 1, 2019, up to 40 hours can be accrued in a 12
month period. So, if an employee only worked 20 hours per week, they
would accumulate 20 hours over the course of the year. An employer
with a paid time-off program such as vacation or combined time off
(CTO) that is at least as generous and can be taken for the same
reasons as sick leave already satisfies the requirements.
Other provisions give employers
flexibility in scheduling if an employee can give sufficient notice
for their absence or can switch with other co-workers. Furthermore,
an employer can require newly hired employees to wait one year before
they can use the accrued sick leave. While the unused accumulated
sick leave is to be rolled over into the next 12 month period, the
employer can limit time off to the minimum required by law for that
12 month period. Employers can be more generous if they prefer.
In recognition of situations faced by
many small businesses, several categories of employees do not fall
under the provisions of the bill. Employers are not required to
provide paid sick leave to employees who annually work less than 18
hours per week on average, work 20 weeks or less in a 12 month
period, work on a per diem basis with no expectation of regular
employment, or who are less than 18 years old. Substitute teachers,
sole proprietors or business partners, and exempt state employees are
also not covered by the bill. There is also a new employer
exemption, which exempts a new business from complying with the law
for a period of one year after the employer hires its first employee.
In addition, the bill requires the Agency of Commerce and Community
Development and the Department of Labor to develop a program that
will assist employers with five or fewer employees with implementing
a paid time off policy.
We recognize that there is a cost to
our employers for this benefit, but we need to also consider the
costs to workers, especially those at the low end of the pay scale,
for not having this benefit. Costs are part of doing business. A
business routinely invests in equipment that improves its operations.
So too, businesses should be willing to invest in their employees
who are a benefit to their business as well.
I will be available at Town Meeting on
March 1 if there is anything you would like to talk about with me. I
always welcome your thoughts and can be reached by phone
(802-233-5238) or by email (myantachka.dfa@gmail.com).
