Senate HELP Committee Approves Paid Leave Bill

On June 21, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee approved and sent to the Senate floor partisan legislation to require most employers to provide up to seven paid sick days each year.

The Healthy Families Act, S.1664, would:

• Require employers with 15 or more employees to offer up to seven job-protected paid sick days each year. This sick leave could be used when the employee gets sick or injured or needs to seek preventive care, to take care of sick family members, or to attend school meetings related to a child’s health condition or disability.
• Allow sick leave to be accrued at the rate of one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, up to 56 hours/year (employers could offer more, if they so choose).
• Allow employers to require certification if an employee uses more than three paid sick days in a row.
• Permit employers to use their own sick leave policy, so long as those policies meet or exceed the requirements in this bill.

For employers with fewer than 15 employees, employees must be eligible for the required sick time, but the time off would not have to be paid time off. The bill also extends the paid time off requirement to victims of domestic violence, stalking, or sexual assault. It also includes methodology for calculating accrued paid sick time.

Prospects: This is partisan legislation and therefore has little to no chance of being enacted into law. It may not even pass the Senate, where 60 votes would be required to clear procedural filibuster hurdles. But it has near-universal Democratic support and is broadly popular in voter opinion polls. Therefore, it is possible, even if not likely, that it could find its way into a bipartisan compromise package later this year. It is an issue that bears a close watch.

NAIFA Staff Contacts: Diane Boyle – Senior Vice President – Government Relations, at dboyle@naifa.org; Jayne Fitzgerald – Director – Government Relations, at jfitzgerald@naifa.org; or Michael Hedge – Senior Director – Government Relations, at mhedge@naifa.org.