New York City Paid Sick Leave Law

Bill DeBlasio is not an easy guy to like: He kept schools opened during the winter of 2013-2014;  he bickered with Al Roker on twitter; and now he is trying to abolish the Standardized High School Admission Test (SHSAT). Nevertheless, he probably did get one thing right: He passed the Paid Sick Leave Law.  It is still a very new law and how it may affect businesses is still unknown.  The law has been in effect since April 1, 2014.  What does this mean for us as entrepreneurs?

As a general rule, if you have four or fewer employees, you do not need to provide paid sick leave.  If you have five or more employees who work more than 80 hours per calendar year, then you will have to comply with the new Paid Sick Leave Law.

Here are some simple ways to comply with the law:

1. The generous way  - Give all of your employees 40 hours of paid sick leave regardless of how many hours they worked.  In fact, the law does not require you to provide your employees all 40 hours of paid sick leave. Actually, the law requires you to give your employees an hour for every thirty hours worked and he/she can accrue up to 40 hours of paid sick leave. Nevertheless, forty would be generous.

2. A way around - Give all of your employees a total 40 hours of leave regardless of whether the employee is taking off for personal reasons, vacation or because he is sick.

3. The stingy way - The most tedious way to comply with the law is by keeping track of the amount of hours worked per employee. As mentioned above, an employee accrues an hour of sick leave per every thirty hours worked. If you have a way to keep track of how many hours were worked per employee and it doesn’t take a considerable amount of time for you to calculate, please share it with us.

Option 3 is doable if you have a very efficient and easy way of keeping count of how many hours your employees worked and the amount of hours they have accrued and used. I recommend options (1) or (2), because it is easier to keep track of and you, the business owner should, can focus on what you’re good at: running a business.