Every person gets sick, and no one should be forced to choose between their job and their health, or their family’s health. Currently, about 28 million people – nearly one in five private-sector workers – cannot earn a single paid sick day. Earned sick leave allows workers to take brief periods off of work to tend to their health and or the health of their loved ones. When employers offer earned sick leave, it not only provides greater job security and keeps communities healthy, but can also save them as much as $1 billion per year. In fact, working sick costs the national economy $273 billion annually in lost productivity.
Over the last several years, cities have worked to advance earned sick leave for workers by passing local laws that require local employers to offer paid sick leave or other forms of paid leave. However, many cities across the nation have been restricted by preemption. Preemption occurs when a higher level of government supersedes the authority of lower levels, and prevents or restricts a lower government from enacting certain laws.
Despite preemptive efforts to restrict earned sick leave in certain states, several city governments – some by way of collective bargaining agreements – have implemented paid, job-protected earned sick leave policies for their employees. We are highlighting a select number of the largest cities in select states for their policies and programs, based on criteria such as the number of hours of sick leave provided, the types of employees covered, the permitted uses of sick leave and more. Here are a few highlights from local governments with these policies:
Charlotte, North Carolina
The city of Charlotte, North Carolina offers an earned sick leave policy, coined “wellbeing leave” to both their full-time and part-time employees. Full-time employees of the city of Charlotte have twelve days of “wellbeing leave,” which may be used for the physical or mental health care of an employee, or the employee’s family member (undefined). The current policy does not list specific instances in which employees may use wellbeing leave. In addition to the twelve wellbeing days, full-time employees earn 1.85 hours of sick/wellbeing leave each week. Charlotte also offers earned sick leave to part-time employees:
- Employees who work 20 hours a week have 6 days of wellbeing leave.
- Employees who work 30 hours a week have 9 days of wellbeing leave. These employees earn 1.39 hours of wellbeing leave each week.
While the carry over of sick leave hours is undefined, Charlotte does offer paid leave for catastrophic medical situations, and requires that employees donate a single sick day to the shared sick leave bank. This policy provides up to 45 days for catastrophic medical situations for an eligible employee or the care of their immediate family member.
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati offers earned sick leave for full-time permanent and provisional employees. These employees accrue four hours of earned sick leave for every 80 hours worked. Employees who work at least 75% of the time, but less than full time may still earn a prorated amount of earned sick leave. The maximum number of earned sick leave hours that may be accrued is undefined.
Eligible employees may utilize earned sick leave for the following reasons:
- Illness, off-duty injury, or official quarantine
- Caring for a family member (immediate family – spouse, parent, parent-in-law, child, sibling or member of the immediate household) in the event of illness, quarantine, accidents, surgery and childbirth (for the non-birthing parent, they may take one sick day each: for the day of the birth and the day the child is brought home).
- Routine medical and dental appointments for the employee and their minor child
- This type of leave is capped at 24 hours per payroll year.
- Pregnancy, childbirth, miscarriage, related medical procedure or recovery
- Adoption of a child under two years old
- Attending a substance abuse treatment program
- Death of an immediate family member or any other relative
Cincinnati employees may also carry over sick leave previously accrued in varying scenarios:
- Employees who re-enter city service as a permanent employee within one year may be credited any accumulated sick leave remaining at the end of their previous service. This includes employees who have been reinstated or rehired to city service.
- Employees who return to full-time employment after working part-time that was immediately preceded by full-time employment will receive the sick leave balance they accumulated during the previous full-time employment period.
- Employees who have been previously employed by either the City of Cincinnati or another Ohio public employer may transfer any unused sick leave credit to their city sick leave balance.
In the event of catastrophic illness or other cases that result in extreme hardship for an employee, the city of Cincinnati provides a sick leave bank that allows permanent, provisional, and part-time (working at least 75 percent of the time) employees to receive donated time with supervisor approval. Lastly, the city of Cincinnati allows for eligible employees to convert additional earned sick leave to cash. To do so, an employee must notify the appropriate payroll authority before January 10th of the same year payment is made.
Durham, North Carolina
In the city of Durham, North Carolina, city workers are provided twelve days of sick leave, which may accumulate indefinitely. Additional sick leave begins to accrue during the bi-weekly period following the hiring date and is granted each bi-weekly pay period, or on paid leave. Employees that work between 37.5 to 40 hours per week earn approximately one hour of sick leave for every ten hours worked. Sick leave may be used for the employee’s illness, medical appointments, childbirth, or serious illness or death in the immediate family. “Family member” is defined as: a spouse, parent, stepparent, parent-in-law, biological, adoptive or foster child, stepchild, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister, half-brother, half-sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, grandparent, grandchild, certified dependent of a City employee or the child of a certified dependent. Durham’s sick leave policy also allows sick leave to be used towards other matters, such as:
- Early retirement
- City employees may voluntarily donate sick leave to other City employees who are suffering from a critical illness or verifiable medical emergency.
- Eligible new hires may transfer an unlimited amount of sick leave time earned during their previous employment.
Lexington, Kentucky
The city of Lexington offers earned sick leave to classified civil service employees, probationary employees and full-time unclassified civil service employees. These employees earn ten hours of sick leave for each fully completed calendar month of service. Part-time employees who have worked for the city for two continuous years earn five hours of sick leave per month.
For full-time employees, sick leave may be used for an illness, injury, quarantine and to attend doctor’s appointments. Sick leave may also be used when a family member has a serious illness, this includes: parents, spouses, children, grandparents, a spouse’s children, parents and grandparents and any relative employees are legally responsible for, or relatives who are residing with and are under the care of employees during the relative’s prolonged illness or incapacitation.
For part-time employees, sick leave may be used for the serious illness of parents, spouses, and children. Full-time employees may use sick leave for extended bereavement, only after bereavement leave has been exhausted. Part-time employees may use sick leave for the death of immediate family members.
Lexington also allows employees to carry over a maximum of 600 hours into the next calendar year. Part-time employees may carry over a maximum of 40 hours of sick leave into the following calendar year.
Louisville, Kentucky
The city of Louisville, Kentucky offers full-time and eligible part-time employees earned sick leave. Full-time employees accumulate twelve days of paid sick leave and may accrue earned sick leave on a weekly basis without a maximum limit. In comparison, part-time employees accrue earned sick leave based on the annual hours they work divided by the annual hours worked by a full-time employee. Employees may use their leave for the following:
- Personal illness or injury of the employee
- Pregnancy or pregnancy-related complication
- Illness or injury of the employee’s family member (undefined) or domestic partner (undefined) which requires the employee’s presence
- Medical appointments
Tampa, Florida
Full-time employees with the city of Tampa, Florida are granted earned sick leave, and accrue just under two hours of sick leave per weekly pay period – approximately eight hours of sick leave per month. This accrual begins according to the first day worked and may be accumulated without a maximum limit. Furthermore, the city of Tampa provides that eligible employees may use sick leave in the following circumstances:
- Illness or disability
- Medical and dental appointments
- To provide care for an ill child, spouse, other legal dependent, parent, family member or any other member of the employee’s immediate household. (This type of use is limited to 40 hours per calendar year.)
Employees granted a certain retirement after ten years of continuous service may be paid a limited amount of accumulated sick leave. The amount of accumulated sick leave to be paid depends on the date of hiring. Sick leave may also be donated to a sick leave bank for the use of other eligible employees.
In conclusion, the local government policies discussed above provide critical earned sick leave policies that support city employees and their families’ recovery from illness and promote overall health. Earned sick leave has been shown to lessen the spread of illness, keep workplaces healthier, reduce worker turnover and promote employee productivity. All workers, their families and their communities, at the very least, deserve the paid job-protected time to recover from illness without the debilitating fear of losing their livelihood.
Credits: Author would like to thank Gail Zuagar, Sharita Gruberg, Anushey Ahmed, and Mettabel Law for their contributions.
Note: The policies discussed are a select few of many. This list is not comprehensive and is not intended to indicate the most satisfactory or unsatisfactory policies across the United States. Any lack of discussion of policies from cities in the United States should not be interpreted as offering unsatisfactory policies.
