COUNSELOR’S CORNER ON NOV. 5, 2024, NEBRASKA VOTERS APPROVED BALLOT Initiative 436, enacting the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, which requires most private employers to provide paid sick time starting Oct. 1, 2025. In response, the Nebraska Legislature passed LB 415 to clarify and amend the Act’s requirements. All employees (whether full-time, part-time, temporary, etc.) who work at least 80 hours of consecutive employment in a calendar year in Nebraska for an employer with 11 or more employees are entitled to accrue paid sick time unless otherwise exempt under the Act. The law exempts the following categories of employees from coverage: individual owner-operators, independent contractors, individuals working in Nebraska fewer than 80 hours per calendar year, temporary or seasonal agricultural employees, employees under age 16, and employees covered by the federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. The Act requires that eligible employees accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, with the annual accrual and use of paid sick time capped based on employer size. Employers with 11 to 19 employees must allow eligible employees to accrue up to 40 hours per year, while those with 20 or more employees must allow eligible employees to accrue up to 56 hours per year. All unused paid sick time must carry over from year to year; however, employers may avoid the carryover requirement by frontloading the full annual allotment at the beginning of the year and paying out any unused balance at year-end. Employees may use paid sick time for the following reasons: a) An employee’s mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; an employee’s need for medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; or an employee’s need for preventive medical care; b) Care of a family member with a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; care of a family member who needs medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; care of a family member who needs preventive medical care; or in the case of a child, to attend a meeting necessitated by the child’s mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition, at a school or place where the child is receiving care; or NEBRASKA’S NEW PAID SICK TIME LAW EXPLAINED BY KATIE RUNGE, KOLEY JESSEN, OMAHA 25 nescpa.org
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