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The Ohio Healthy Families Act
What does it mean to you, to employees, to the state?
General Questions and Answers about the Proposed Ohio Healthy Families Act
(adapted from information provided by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce)
Q. What does this proposed law require?
A. This proposed law requires all Ohio employers with 25 or more employees to provide seven paid sick days to all employees working 30 hours or more per week and a pro rated amount of paid sick leave annually to all employees working less than 30 hours per week or less than 1,560 hours per year.
Q. Will this apply to a company that is headquartered out of state but has employees in Ohio?
A. As long as a company employs at least 25 people in Ohio, the law will apply to the Ohio employees.
Q. Don’t Ohio employers already have to provide sick leave?
A. Currently, companies with 50 or more employees must comply with the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). FMLA requires employers to provide 12 weeks of uncompensated time off for documented personal health conditions and certain family medical situations. The Ohio Healthy Families Act would apply to companies with 25 or more employees thereby greatly increasing the number of companies that must comply with mandated sick leave (those with 25+ employees vs. 50+ employees for FMLA). Moreover, leave under the Ohio Healthy Families Act must be paid, and may be taken for any medical condition.
Q. Where did this proposal come from?
A. This proposal is similar to the federal Healthy Families Act proposed several times in the U.S. Senate. In states and cities where similar proposals are being debated, paid sick leave has the backing of organized labor and other groups representing workers and citizens. While proponents say the proposal is good for business, opponents say that mandating paid benefits reduces flexibility and adds unnecessary costs.
Q. Do other states provide mandated sick leave?
A. This proposal would make Ohio the only state in the nation that would require paid sick leave. Those opposing the law suggest that this would put Ohio at a severe disadvantage when trying to attract new companies and jobs to the state and would discourage existing companies from expanding. Currently, Ohio is the only state which would have such a policy, though other states and municipalities are considering enacting similar laws.
Q. What is the status of Ohio’s proposal?
A. The proponents backing this issue collected enough signatures to place it before the Ohio General Assembly in 2007. The legislature chose to take no action within the allotted time-frame, so, another 120,683 signatures from over 240,000 collected are in the process of being verified that will enable placing the issue before the voters on the November 4, 2008, ballot.
Specific Questions and Answers about
the Proposed Ohio Healthy Families Act
Q. For what circumstances can an employee use paid sick leave?
A. Under this proposal, employees would be able to use paid sick leave for any absence resulting from a physical or mental illness, injury or medical condition of the employee or family member. Paid sick leave would also be allowed to be used for time missed for doctor’s visits for the employee or the employee’s family member.
Q. What kind of medical documentation does the employee have to provide?
A. Unless three consecutive days are missed, no medical documentation can be required. For leave that is three consecutive days or longer, an employee will have 30 days to produce certification from a health care professional. Notably, such certification will be required only upon an employer's request.
Q. With documentation only required for three consecutive days, won’t the mandate be abused?
A. While the majority of employees don’t abuse company policies, there are those employees who do. If employees have 30 days in which to produce documentation, the employee could be paid for the leave before documentation is produced. An employer cannot delay the commencement of the leave just because the employee has not yet produced documentation.
Q. Does the employee have to take the paid leave in increments of full days?
A. No, the paid leave can be used on an hourly basis or in the smallest increment used by the employer to track other types of leave.
Q. What about those companies where employee schedules vary from week to week?
A. For employees whose schedules vary on a weekly basis, a weekly average of hours worked over a 12-week period must be used to calculate the accrual of sick leave.
Q. What if a company already provides paid sick leave?
A. An employer with a policy is not required to modify its policy IF the existing policy is at least equivalent to the mandated sick leave. The proposal, however, is vague and it is not entirely clear whether a company that provides seven days of paid time off would satisfy the mandated seven days of paid sick leave.
Q. When does an employee become eligible to use paid sick leave?
A. Sick leave would accumulate at least monthly and begin accruing upon hire. However, employers would not be required to grant sick leave during the first 90 days of employment.
Q. Will this proposal allow employees to carry over unused sick days?
A. Unused sick days may be accumulated from year to year, but employers would not be required to permit the accumulation of more than seven days per year. It is unclear what this means because details of the proposal are not spelled out.
Q. When an employee leaves the company for any reason, are they required to be compensated for unused sick leave?
A. The proposed legislation is vague in this area so it will be left up to the employer to interpret the intent of the law.
This notice is intended to provide information generally and to identify general legal requirements. It is not intended as a form of, or as a substitute for, legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created or implied by this notice.
