Paid sick leave on Nebraska’s November ballot

Nebraska citizens will vote on November 5 about whether employees in that state should be entitled to paid leave.

Under the initiative, dubbed the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, employers would need to grant paid leave based on how many employees they have. This is broken down as follows:

• Employers with 20 or fewer employees would need to give employees at least 40 hours (five days) of paid sick leave per year.
• Employers with more than 20 employees would need to give employees at least 56 hours (seven days) of paid sick leave per year.

Nebraska employers would get to define the 12-month leave year period.

Employees who work in Nebraska for fewer than 80 hours in a calendar year are not included.

Like many other state paid leave laws, according to the petition, Nebraska employees would earn an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Unused leave would carry over into the next year. In lieu of carryover, employers could pay out an employee for unused leave at the end of the year.

Employers could frontload the leave at the beginning of the leave year if they choose.

Employees could take the leave for the following reasons:

• For their own condition or for preventive care,
• To care for a family member or for their preventive care,
• To attend meetings for a child’s condition at school/daycare, or
• For the closure of the employee’s business or a child’s school/daycare due to a public health emergency.

Family members include children, parents, spouses, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, or any other individual related by blood or whose close association with the employee is equivalent to that of a family member.

Employees would begin to accrue leave upon hire or October 1, 2025, whichever is later. Employees could use the leave as it is accrued.

Employers with existing paid leave policies that meet the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act's requirements would not be required to provide additional paid leave.

State lawmakers would, however, have the option of changing a voter-approved law, so the provisions could be altered.

Key to remember: Nebraska could join the list of states with an employee paid leave law, as a related petition is expected to be on the ballot in November.