US: Paid sick leave mandates approved in three more states

Employer Action Code: Act

Voters in Alaska, Missouri and Nebraska approved referendums in November 2024 to establish respective statewide paid sick leave requirements, joining 18 other states (and the District of Columbia) that have existing paid sick leave mandates. Notably, the new mandates allow employees to use paid sick leave to care for ill family members, among other uses, which may pose new requirements on some employers’ existing voluntary paid sick leave programs.

Key details

Alaska Paid Sick Leave (Ballot Measure 1):

• The mandate will apply to practically all employers and is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2025.
• Employees will accrue one hour of employer-provided paid sick leave per 30 hours worked, up to 56 hours per year for employers with 15 or more employees in Alaska and up to 40 hours for smaller employers. Unused sick leave may be carried over, but employers will not be required to allow employees to use more than the annual entitlement per calendar year (56 or 40 hours, depending on workforce size). Leave may be used for employees’ own health matters; to care for ill family members; and for issues related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking of the employee or the employee’s family member.

Missouri Earned Paid Sick Time (Proposition A):

• The mandate will apply to practically all employers and is scheduled to take effect on May 1, 2025.
• Employees will accrue one hour of employer-provided paid sick leave per 30 hours worked. No annual accrual limit is noted in Proposition A, but employees may not use more than 56 hours of sick leave per year (40 hours for employers with fewer than 15 employees in Missouri), and employers may cap carryover of unused leave at 80 hours. Leave may be taken for employees’ own health matters; to care for ill family members; for issues related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking of the employee or the employee’s family member; and for public health emergencies that affect employees or their family members.

Nebraska Paid Sick Leave (Initiative Measure 436):

• The mandate will apply to practically all employers and is scheduled to take effect on October 1, 2025.
• Employees will accrue one hour of employer-provided paid sick leave per 30 hours worked, up to 56 hours per year for employers with 20 or more employees in Nebraska and up to 40 hours for smaller employers. Unused sick leave may be carried over, but employers will not be required to allow employees to use more than the annual entitlement per calendar year (56 or 40 hours, depending on workforce size). Leave may be used for employees’ own health matters, to care for ill family members, and for public health emergencies that affect employees or their family members.

Employer implications

There is no federal law mandating paid sick leave in the private sector, but many employers offer it voluntarily. Among employers surveyed by WTW, 49% have paid sick leave programs (most commonly providing seven days’ paid sick leave per year at the median, but without a carryover option); 44% combine sick and annual leave as personal time off (PTO), providing 19 days in total at the median after one year of service, which usually can be carried forward. Sick leave policies generally don’t cover caring for sick family members (but may be used for that purpose in practice), while by its nature PTO can be used as the employee sees fit. Family caregiver leave is much less common, offered by 30% of employers surveyed. While the new mandates are fairly modest entitlements, employers with operations in Alaska, Missouri or Nebraska should review their leave policies in light of these new mandates, particularly in regard to requirements around leave being used to care for ill family members and the carry forward of unused leave.