State Updates
California
The Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) has updated the San Francisco Paid Parental Leave Ordinance (SF PPLO) poster for the first time since 2020. The new poster reflects recent changes to the CA Paid Family Leave program effective January 1, 2025, so be sure to have the poster placed at each worksite where employees can easily read it and provide it electronically for remote employees as soon as possible.
Michigan
The Great Lake State recently made some changes to their Earned Sick Time law that went into effect as of February 21, 2025. These new changes are effective immediately, and are intended to provide clarification to the existing law. The Michigan Bureau of Employment Relations has released FAQs about the Earned Sick Time Act, which you may find helpful when taking steps to comply with the law. Regardless, because we have not covered the law in our newsletter before, we have provided a general overview of the law with the new revisions. The Larkin Company does not administer paid sick leave, however, we wanted to make sure you are aware of the updates.
Coverage
Covered employers under this law are those with at least 1 employee in the state. Additionally, a small employer is defined as those with 9 or fewer employees in the U.S. and they are held to different requirements than those with 10 or more in the U.S. Covered employees are all individuals physically located in Michigan and engaged in service to an employer, except: those employed by the US government; unpaid trainees or unpaid interns; individuals employed following the Youth Employment Standards Act; and those employees working in accordance with an employer policy that allows the employee to schedule their own working hours. The employer cannot take adverse personnel action against the employee if they do not schedule a minimum number of hours.
Benefits and Durations
An employee’s earned sick time begins to accrue as of October 1, 2025 for a small employer, February 21, 2025 for all other employers, or upon commencement of employment (whichever is later). An employer may require an employee hired on or after February 21, 2025 to wait until the 120th calendar day after date of hire before using accrued earned sick time. All employees shall accrue a minimum of 1 hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked in a benefit year, which is a regular and consecutive 12-month period as determined by an employer to calculate benefits. Small employers may cap the amount of used paid earned sick time to 40 hours per year, while other employers may cap the amount of both accrued and used paid earned sick time to 72 hours per year. Either category of employers may provide a higher limit to the amount of paid earned sick time employees may use per year. Salaried employees are assumed to work 40 hours each workweek unless their normal workweek is less, in which case accrual is based upon that normal workweek.
Earned but unused paid sick time can be paid out or carried over to the following year, up to 40 hours for small employers or up to 72 hours for other employers. As an alternative to accrual, an employer may “frontload” and provide an employee earned paid sick time that meets the requirements at the beginning of a year for immediate use. If an employer decides to frontload earned sick time, employers do not have to allow carry over of unused sick time to the next benefit year, calculate and track employee’s accrual or, pay the value of employee’s unused sick time.
Leave Reasons
An employee is permitted to use accrued earned sick time due to:
- Their own or their family member’s: mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; the medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of a mental or physical illness; or the need for preventative medical care
- The closure of the employee’s place of business or the employee’s child’s school or place of care due to a public health emergency; or the employee or their family member jeopardizing the health of others in the community because of exposure to a communicable disease (whether or not they have actually contracted the communicable disease)
- Domestic violence, sexual violence, abuse, or stalking: seeking medical attention; seeking services from a domestic or sexual violence program or victim services organization; psychological or other counseling; relocation or taking steps to secure an existing home; or legal services, including preparing for or participating in any civil or criminal legal proceedings; and
- Meetings at a child’s school or place of care related to the child’s health or disability, or the effects of domestic violence or sexual assault on the child
Family Members
Family members for which an employee can take leave for the reason above are defined as:
A child (whether biological, adopted, foster, step, legal ward, of a domestic partner, or to whom the employee stands in loco parentis); parent (whether biological, adopted, foster, step, legal guardian, of a spouse or domestic partner, or to whom stood in loco parentis when the employee was a minor); grandparent; grandchild; sibling (whether biological, foster, or adopted); an individual related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship; or domestic partner; or an individual in which the employee is in a committed relationship.
Minnesota
Minnesota Paid Leave has confirmed that the premium rate for the upcoming program (payroll deductions begin and benefits are available starting January 1, 2026) will be 0.88%. The rate is a percentage of an employee’s wages that will be paid by the employee and their employer to fund the program. A new calculator tool is available to help employers and employees estimate costs under the program.
As a reminder, the first premium payments are due April 30, 2026 and will be based on wages reported between January 1, 2026 and March 31, 2026.
Additionally, with Paid Leave coming into effect soon, they are now offering a monthly webinar series to discuss specific topics, like employer roles and responsibilities, as well as an introduction to the program. You can register here, with the soonest webinar being held on March 13, 2025.
Washington
On January 16, 2025, the Employment Security Department (ESD) adopted CR-103, which amends and repeals rules for the WA Paid Family and Medical Leave program effective February 16, 2025. Here is a summary of the changes:
- Added naturopathic physicians licensed under chapter 18.36A RCW in the definition of “health care provider”
- Updated language to remove gender-specific pronouns
- Repealed rules related to the pandemic leave assistance grant program
- Set the prevailing interest rate for late payments associated with employer damages to 1% per month
- Aligned application backdating timelines associated with good cause with all other application backdating reasons
- Added requirement for weekly claims to include hours worked in self-employment
- Added permission for the department to accept verbal authorization in certain cases regarding designated representatives
We recommend updating your resources to align with the changes as soon as possible, if you have not already done so.
