Is My Employer Required to Give You Sick Leave?
Many people tend to think that companies are obliged by the law to give their employees some paid time off every year to serve as sick leave. According to the regulations, this popular perception is wrong. Clearly, there is no legal obligation upon employers to give sick leave to their employees.
However, the law requires employers to allow their employees to take some time off from work under certain circumstances. During the leave of absence, the employer is not obliged to pay the employee. Some of the situations that an employer is required to give a leave of absence are pregnancy-related conditions and accommodation of a disability, when required by the Medical Leave Act or Family
Given that the federal law does not require employers to provide sick leave to their employees, it follows without question that payment during such leave, if granted, is not backed by the law to come with payment. However, in some states, employers are required to provide paid leave for all their employees.
However, the law does not allow discrimination in the payment of sick leaves. An employer might be sued for providing paid sick leave to a single employee and failing to do the same with the other employees. The federal law demands all employees be treated consistently and equally when they take sick leave.
For the employers who provide paid sick leave, the law allows them to follow up the employees to ensure that the leave is used for the intended purpose and not a way of obtaining extra vacation time. For instance, if you take sick leave, your employer might ask you to keep in touch throughout the whole period you are unwell by calling each day or request for a doctor’s note indicating how serious the illness is. Also, an employer is allowed to monitor sick leave patterns to identify cheating employees. Some of the flagging factors your employer might use against you are taking leave at the end or the beginning of the week consistently or at the end of every year. Those found abusing sick leave face the risk of discipline actions taken against them or termination.
Are there laws in my state about paid sick leave?
Various states and local laws require employers to give paid sick leaves to workers who qualify. However, this number is small compared to the total number of states in the country. At some instances, the category of employees qualifying for paid sick leave is narrowed to specific cities within these states. Below are some of the states that require employees to provide paid sick leaves:
California: Emeryville, Oakland, San Francisco, California
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Oregon: Portland, Oregon
District of Columbia
Vermont
New Jersey cities of Bloomfield, East Orange, Irvington, Montclair, Newark, Passaic, Patterson, and Trenton
Jersey City, New Jersey
Washington: Seattle, Tacoma, Washington
New York
Montgomery County, Maryland
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