By Dalia Diaz
Representatives of Attorney General Maura Healey’s Office held a meeting in Lawrence to explain and answer questions from local business owners and other members of the public about the new earned sick time law that is set to go into effect July 1. The meeting was held at the Lawrence Public Library and it was attended by 55 people from the entire area.
Massachusetts voters passed the Earned Sick Leave Law by ballot initiative in November.
The law requires that employers provide earned paid sick time to eligible employees if they maintained 11 or more employees on the payroll during 20 or more weeks (whether consecutive or not) or for 16 consecutive weeks over either the current or preceding calendar year.
Employees will earn one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked, and begin accruing those hours on the date of hire or on July 1, 2015, whichever is later. Employees can begin to use earned sick time on the 90th day after hire.
Employees can carry over up to 40 hours of unused sick time to the next calendar year, but cannot use more than 40 hours in a calendar year. Employers do not have to pay employees for unused sick time at the end of their employment.
If an employee misses work for a reason eligible for earned sick time, but agrees with the employer to work the same number of hours or shifts in the same or next pay period, the employee will not have to use earned sick time for the missed time, and the employer will not have to pay for that missed time. Employers will be prohibited from requiring an employee to work additional hours to make up for missed time, or to find a replacement employee.
Earned sick time can be used for the following reasons:
- to care for the employee’s child, spouse, parent, or parent of a spouse who is suffering from a physical or mental illness, injury, or medical condition that requires home care, professional medical diagnosis or care, or preventative medical care;
- to care for the employee’s own physical or mental illness, injury, or medical condition that requires home care, professional medical diagnosis or care, or preventative medical care;
- to attend the employee’s routine medical appointment or a routine medical appointment for the employee’s child, spouse, parent, or parent of spouse; or
- to address the psychological, physical or legal effects of domestic violence.
Earned sick time includes time necessary to travel to and from an appointment, a pharmacy, or other location related to the purpose for which the time was taken.
Generally speaking, employees must be paid what they would have earned if they had worked instead of using earned sick time. Calculating what an employee would have earned will depend upon the nature of the employment. Workers using earned sick time do not receive overtime or other premium rates.
- Hourly workers must be paid base rate wages and any other benefits paid or accrued on an hourly basis if the individual works.
- Employees paid a salary, piece work rate, fee or any basis other than an hourly rate must be paid at a rate of the employee’s total earnings in the previous pay period divided by the total hours worked during the previous pay period.
- Employees paid on commission (whether base wage plus commission or commission only) must be paid the greater of the base wage or the effective minimum wage under M.G.L. c. 151, § 1.
Regardless of the measure used, an employee may not be paid less than the minimum wage. The Massachusetts minimum wage is $9.00 per hour. On January 1, 2016, the minimum wage will be $10.00 per hour. On January 1, 2017, the minimum wage will be $11.00 per hour.
Employers may require up to seven days’ notice if the employee has a pre-scheduled or anticipated time they plan to take off to use earned sick time.
Draft regulations, a list of public hearings, and the text of the Earned Sick Time law can be found on the Attorney General’s website at www.mass.gov/ago/earnedsicktime.
