All employers whose employees’ primary worksite is located in Vermont will be required to offer their employees paid sick leave. Below are some frequently asked questions about the state's paid sick leave requirements.
How is paid leave earned and used?
- An employee will earn 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 52 hours worked (including overtime).
- The employees must be allowed to carry over up to 40 hours of unused paid sick time into the next year unless leave is front-loaded.
What is a Front-loaded accrual?
- Employers may provide their employees with a balance of 40 hours at the beginning of each year. In this event, employers are no longer obligated to allow an employee to carry over unused paid sick time into the next year.
When can employees begin using paid sick leave?
- An employee must begin accruing sick leave upon their first day of employment, but the employer can implement a 1-year waiting period before the employees can use the paid time off.
Who isn't eligible for paid sick leave?
- United States government employees
- Employees who work for an average of fewer than 18 hours per week
- Seasonal employees who are employed by an employer for 20 weeks or less in a 12 month period.
- Certain exempt state employees who are not covered by the collective bargaining agreement
- Substitute teachers, except for long-term substitutes
- Minors under the age of 18
- An individual that works on a per diem or intermittent basis
- Individuals that are either a sole proprietor or partner owner of an unincorporated business who is excluded from the definition of employee, or an executive officer, manager, or member of a corporate or a limited liability company for whom the Commissioner has approved an exclusion from the provisions of chapter 9 of Title 21.
When should an employee use paid sick leave?
- When the employee or employee’s child, parent, grandparent, spouse, or parent-in-law is sick or injured
- To obtain health care, preventive care, or travel to an appointment related to their long-term care
- To address the effects of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking
- To care for a family member because the school or business where the family member is located is closed for public health or safety reasons
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.