The paid sick leave trend continues in the United States as constituents in three states—Nebraska, Missouri, and Alaska—overwhelmingly voted to establish paid sick leave rights for workers in their states in the November 2024 election. These newly approved paid sick leave laws significantly shift employee leave accommodations by providing added eligibility conditions.
Paid sick leave laws refer to laws that provide workers with pay when they need time off due to their own or a family member’s illness, to access medical care (including preventative care), and for other reasons depending on the specific law. Employers must take steps to evaluate these legislations and determine if their workforce compliance measures meet these new standards.
Here is an overview of the three paid sick leave measures recently approved by voters:
Nebraska
The Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (“Act”) requires private employers with one or more employees in Nebraska to grant paid sick time to their workers beginning October 1, 2025. The Act entitles eligible employees to accrue at least one hour of paid sick time for every thirty hours worked upon beginning employment. Employees are eligible for paid sick leave if they work at least eighty hours in Nebraska during a calendar year.
Eligible employees of small businesses, meaning those organizations with fewer than twenty employees, may earn and use forty hours of paid sick time per year. Alternatively, eligible employees of larger businesses are entitled to earn and use fifty-six hours per year. Paid sick leave may be used for the following reasons:
- An employee’s mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition, including medical diagnosis, treatment, and preventative care
- Caring for a family member with a physical or mental illness, injury, or health condition who needs medical diagnosis, preventative care, or to attend a meeting necessitated by a child’s physical or mental illness at a school or care facility
- The closing of the employee’s place of business, or their child’s school or place of care, by order of a public health official due to a public health emergency
- An employee’s need to self-isolate or care for a family member when competent health authorities determine their presence in the community may jeopardize the health of others due to exposure to a communicable disease
Nebraska employers may also frontload paid sick leave, which an employee is expected to accrue during a given year at the beginning of the year. Guidance from the Nebraska Department of Labor is expected to clarify and expand on the details of this new law.
Missouri
The new Missouri paid sick leave law defines covered employers as any person acting directly or indirectly in the employer’s interest relating to an employee, excluding the United States Government and political subdivisions of Missouri. The ballot initiative did not base employer coverage on the number of employees an employer has.
Eligible employees are defined as persons employed in Missouri by an employer, but certain workers are excluded from coverage such as:
- Employees of charitable, religious, or nonprofit organizations
- Retail or service employees whose businesses make less than $500,000 per year
- Resident or day camp workers
- Babysitters
- Employees working occasionally on a private residence
- Employees providing work instead of tuition, housing, or educational fees
Employees accrue one hour of earned paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The law currently does not address whether employers can set a cap on accrual.
Employees can use Missouri Paid Sick Leave for the following reasons:
- Medical diagnosis, care, treatment, and preventative medical care for their own or a family member’s mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition
- The closing of the employee’s place of business or their child’s school or place of care by order of a public official due to a public health emergency
- To care for oneself or a family member when health authorities determine the presence of the individual in the community may jeopardize the health of others due to exposure to a communicable disease
- Absences due to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking if the leave is for medical attention, services from a victim assistance organization, counseling, relocation for safety reasons, or legal services for the employee or the employee’s family member
Workers will begin accruing paid sick time on May 1, 2025. However, employers may also frontload all earned paid sick leave an employee is expected to accrue in a year at the start of the year.1
Alaska
Alaska’s new paid sick leave law allows covered employees to accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to a yearly cap of 40 or 56 hours, depending on the employer’s size. Specifically, all employers with 15 or more employees will have to provide up to 56 leave hours annually, while employers with under 15 employees must provide up to 46 hours.
Covered employees are defined in the law by who is not covered such as
- Employees of non-profit organizations
- Employees subject to the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act
- Part-time employees under age 18 who are employed for no more than 30 hours per week
- Workers engaged in domestic service, agriculture, or fishing
- Certain apprentices
Employees can use paid sick leave for these reasons:
- Their own mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition—need for medical diagnosis, treatment, care, and preventative care
- Care or assistance for a family member relating to mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition—need for medical diagnosis, treatment, or care—and for preventative medical care
- Absences due to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, if the leave is to allow the employee to obtain medical or psychological attention for themselves or a family member, services from a victim’s assistance organization, relocation for safety reasons, or legal services
Employees begin accruing paid sick time on July 1, 2025. Alaska’s new paid sick leave mandate does not address frontloading of leave at the start of the year. However, additional guidance from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workplace Development is expected.
Paid Sick Leave Laws Continue to Evolve
These summaries of the new paid sick leave laws in Alaska, Missouri, and Nebraska are merely intended to be overviews. Additional details of employer requirements are contained in the laws, with added compliance guidance expected to come from the labor departments of the three states. With paid leave laws quickly expanding and becoming more complex, employers would be wise to contact their legal counsel with compliance concerns they may have to avoid costly violations.
See how workforce compliance software can help your company keep up with ever-changing employment requirements from federal and state regulators.
1A coalition of state associations is planning to challenge the legitimacy of the new Missouri law in court.
