Most non-benefited employees are eligible for Earned Sick Time. The Earned Sick Time Law does not override employers’ obligations under any contract or benefit plan with more generous provisions than those in the law.

Employers that have their own policies providing as much paid time off, usable for the same purposes and under the same conditions as the law, are not required to provide additional paid sick time.

University employees that are already receiving accrued sick time that is in compliance with the conditions of the state law, and is more generous than the state law requires, will not be impacted by this law. Therefore, our benefited employees are NOT affected by this law.

On June 19, 2015, the Attorney General’s Office finalized the regulations. The final regulations require that all employees across Massachusetts be allowed to accrue and use up to 40 hours of sick time annually, where one hour of sick time is earned for every 30 hours a person works, including overtime hours. Employees can carry over up to 40 hours of unused sick time to the next calendar year, but cannot use more than 40 hours in a calendar year.

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