Employers with 18 or more employees whose primary worksites are located in Rhode Island are required to offer paid sick leave to their employees. Below are some frequently asked questions about the state's paid sick leave requirements.
How is paid leave earned?
- An employee will earn 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 35 hours worked, up to 40 hours.
- Unused paid sick leave hours must be carried over to the following year.
- Employers may offer their employees the total sick time due at the beginning of the year, sometimes called front-loading. If employers choose this option, they are not required to track the accrual nor are they required to allow the unused paid sick leave to carry over to the next year.
When can employees begin using paid sick leave?
- While employees must start accruing time upon their first day of work, employers are allowed to set a 90 day waiting period before newly hired employees can utilize their paid sick leave.
What if the employee is seasonal or temporary?
- If an employer is hiring seasonal employees, they will become eligible to utilize paid sick leave upon their 151st day of employment.
- If an employer is hiring a temporary employee (those working or, or obtaining employment per an agreement with, any employment agency, placement service, or training school or center), they will become eligible to utilize paid sick leave upon their 181st day of employment.
Who isn't eligible for paid sick leave?
- Individuals not considered employees under the Rhode Island Minimum Wage Act (e.g., outside salespeople, golf caddies, certain seasonal resort employees)
- Independent contractors
- Subcontractors
- Federal work-study participants
- Licensed nurses employed by a healthcare facility on a per diem basis
When should an employee use paid sick leave?
- Mental or physical illness, injury or health condition of an employee or covered relation
- Medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury or health condition of an employee or covered relation
- Preventive medical care for an employee or covered relation
- Leave related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking impacting an employee or covered relation
- Closure of the employee’s place of business, or a child’s school or place of care, by order of a public official due to a public health emergency
- Health authorities or a health care provider determines the employee or covered relation’s presence in the community may jeopardize other’s health because of the individual’s exposure to a communicable disease, whether or not the employee or covered relation has actually contracted the communicable disease.
How to set up accrual policies in OnPay
Go to Payroll, then Set up, and click Accrual Policies.
Click Add in the upper right to open the Policy Setup template.
The Policy Setup template is divided into two parts:
- Policy name and type
- Policy setup
Policy name and type
Give this policy a unique name that sets it apart from other accruals. The name should make it very clear how and when this policy will apply. For this example, we'll make a sick time policy that accrues annually, but we'll explore many more examples later in this article.
Determine the timeframe by which accrued time is earned. Your choices are “Per hour worked,” “Per pay period,” or “Annual on anniversary date” (hire date).
Choose when these hours will expire, if ever. Your choices are “Hours do not expire”, “Hours expire on anniversary”, or “Hours expire on Jan 1st”.
Select the accrual type.
Policy Setup
The Policy Setup is in three periods. This means hours accrued by workers can increase with their tenure in up to three stages. To create a probationary period, where no time is accrued until this introductory period is over, enter "0" per hour, then the number of months in the probationary period. If you don't want accruals to increase, enter the same information in each period. Unused hours will rollover to the next period. We'll explore more examples later.
Note: Setting the "Cap" is not the same as setting a "rollover limit".
- Some businesses limit the amount of unused time off that an employee can continue to hold going into a new year. This is to ensure that employees are taking the time they need to live a balanced and full life, as well as to protect the business from employees taking or cashing out large sums of paid time off all at once. We'll show you how to limit rollover in How to assign time off accrual policies to employees→
First two periods
For the first two periods, enter:
- How many hours can be accrued each year
- For how many months time is accrued at this rate
- The limit, or cap for these hours.
Third period
You don’t need to indicate the number of months in the third period. This period lasts for the remainder of the worker's employment.
Click Create when you're ready to finalize this accrual. Clicking Not Now will close this window, but will not save your progress.