Nebraska’s paid sick leave law goes into effect Wednesday

Amelia Rosser, the owner and operator of Sheelytown Market in Omaha, has been a proponent of paid sick leave since it was a ballot initiative more than a year ago. She’s so much of a supporter, that even though Sheelytown only has four employees, she thought it was important to provide a paid sick leave program.

“There’s not a lot of those protections available to Nebraskans,” Rosser said. “So I want to put money where my mouth is, and that's always been something really important to me… if that's the demand of what the workers in our economy need, then I want to meet that.”

Rosser believes employee well-being should be accounted for when running a business, and as a business owner, that is her responsibility.

She said that her business, a plant shop and makers market, was an easy fit for paid sick leave due to its ability to be flexible, though she acknowledged that it may be different for other types of businesses.

“The barrier is not that high, and it could be greater for others, and it could be a tighter margin for other types of businesses,” Rosser said. “We are not a food and beverage-type business. Those margins are very different, and it's much harder to maintain.”

Businesses in all industries big enough will have to start providing sick leave to employees as of Wednesday. That’s when the modified Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act will go into effect.

The law requires businesses with 11-19 employees to provide those employees with at least 40 hours of paid sick leave per year, and those with 20 or more employees will need to provide at least 56 hours of paid sick leave.

The grocery industry is one sector where business owners are worried about the new law.

“Our smaller employers are having to sort of scramble to some extent, and rethink some of their policies,” said Ansley Fellers, executive director of the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association. “It's going to be a little more costly and difficult for them to implement.”

She said a blanket law requiring all businesses to provide paid sick leave may lead to increased prices or fewer hours of operation at small businesses.

“There are seasonal, temporary and part-time employees who are covered now as well,” Fellers said. “And that is, again, whether you agree or disagree, that is an added cost, that is a new cost, and that will be reflected in some way.”

Fellers said business owners are not against paid sick leave, or for people not getting time off, but the one-size-fits-all method is not the best course of action.

She said the NGIA plans on continuing to work with legislators to tweak and provide cleanup on the law in areas such as requiring more on the printed poster businesses are required to have, or what the rules are when it comes to a maximum amount of sick leave an employee can have. As it currently stands, there is no maximum amount an employee can collect over a single employment, only that the employer is not required to let the employee use more than they are able to get within one year.

More information on the law can be found at the Nebraska Department of Labor’s website.