Q: I have employees working in Maryland. What do I need to know and do in order to comply with Maryland’s new paid sick leave law?
A: The Maryland Healthy Working Family Act (the “Act”) went into effect on February 11, 2018. In short, the Act requires employers with 15 or more employees working in Maryland to provide paid sick and “safe” leave for qualified employees. Employees eligible for paid leave are entitled to be paid at the same rate the employee normally earns. Employers with 14 or fewer employees are required to provide unpaid sick and safe leave. All covered employers with employees whose primary work location is in Maryland are required to provide earned leave, regardless of where the employer is located.
Employees may use earned “sick and safe” leave to treat their own mental or physical injury, illness, or condition; to obtain preventive medical care for themselves or their family member; to care for a family member’s physical injury, illness, or condition; for maternity or paternity leave; or if the absence from work is necessary due to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking committed against the employee or the employee’s family member, and the leave is being used by the employee or employee’s family member to obtain certain services offered to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
Under the Act, employees are able to accrue one hour of leave for every 30 hours that an employee works. An employee is entitled to accrue up to 40 hours of sick and safe leave in a year, regardless of the number of hours worked. Rather than awarding leave as it accrues throughout the year, an employer is permitted to “frontload” and award the full 40 hours of earned sick and safe leave that the employee would earn over the course of the year at the beginning of the year. Further, an employee is entitled to carry over earned but unused sick and safe leave from one year to the next, up to a maximum of 64 total hours. Of course, employers may allow employees to accrue more than 40 hours of leave in a year. There is no requirement for an employer to compensate employees for unused earned sick and safe leave when an employee leaves the employer’s employment.
Not all employees are covered under the Act. For example, employees working less than 12 hours a week and individuals under the age of 18 are exempt from the Act. There is also a carve-out for construction industry employees if an employee is covered by a bona fide collective bargaining agreement in which the requirements of the Act are clearly and expressly waived.
Employers are not required to modify existing paid leave policies if the existing policy allows employees to accrue and use leave under terms and conditions that are equal to the leave provided for under the Act. Employers also are required to provide notice of the Act’s requirements by posting information about the new law. Employers can meet this requirement by posting the Employee Notice found here. Additionally, employers may still require employees using sick and safe leave to comply with the employer’s regular notice and procedural requirements.
The Maryland Healthy Working Family Act is a complex law with multiple facets, including recordkeeping and tracking requirements. For further information regarding the Maryland Healthy Working Family Act or for assistance in developing policies compliant with Maryland law, contact any member of the Pepper Hamilton labor and employment team.