(1) An employer
must provide earned paid sick time to all eligible employees if the employer
maintained an average of 11 or more employees on the payroll during the
preceding benefit year.
Employers shall determine the average number of employees by
counting the number of employees, including full time, part-time, seasonal, and
temporary employees, on the payroll during each pay period and dividing by the
number of pay periods. Employees furnished to an employer by a temporary
staffing agency and paid by the staffing agency count as employees of both the
staffing agency and the employer for the purpose of determining employer
size.
(2) If an employer
uses multiple start dates for the benefit year, such as dates based on
employees' anniversaries of hire, the employer should calculate employer size
based on the previous January 1 to December 31 calendar year.
(3) All of an employer's employees, including
full-time, part-time, seasonal, and temporary employees, whether working in or
outside Massachusetts and regardless of their eligibility to accrue and use
earned sick time, shall be counted for the purpose of determining employer
size.
(4) All employers with fewer
than 11 employees must provide employees with the right to accrue and use up to
40 hours of earned unpaid sick time per benefit year.
(5) Employers shall notify all eligible
employees at least 30 days in advance in writing if earned sick time will be
changing from paid to unpaid or from unpaid to paid sick time based on a change
in employer size.
(6) Earned sick
time is paid when used, if the employer provided paid time when the employee
accrued the time. Earned sick time is unpaid when used, if the employer
provided unpaid time when the employee accrued the time.
(7) When an employee has both unused earned
paid and unpaid sick time available for use, the employee has the option of
using either or both to cover the use of earned sick time.
