Have you updated your sick leave or paid time off policy as required by New Jersey’s new MANDATORY paid sick leave law? This law goes into effect on October 29th and will apply to every business in New Jersey, regardless of size. The law requires, among other things, that you provide at least 40 hours of paid sick leave per year to all employees (even part-time employees). If you currently offer at least 40 hours of general, Paid Time Off (“PTO”) that includes sick leave, you may already be in partial compliance with the law. However, the law also sets strict requirements for the rate at which your employees accrue paid leave and technical rules regarding the carry-over and/or pay out of up to 40 hours of unused leave at the end of each benefit year. The carry-over and/or payout of unused sick time is now required regardless of whether paid sick time accrues or is granted outright at the beginning of the benefit year, though the State is still in the process of reviewing comments on its proposed regulations that could change this and other requirements. The State’s poster regarding the new law can be found here:
https://www.nj.gov/labor/forms_pdfs/mw565sickleaveposter.pdf.