In November of 2014, by a margin of 19 percent, voters in Massachusetts clearly expressed their wishes that a statewide provision be implemented requiring all employers to offer sick time. Every employer in the state will soon be required to offer either paid or unpaid sick time, depending on their number of employees. In each case, employees will be required to accrue the time with their hours worked, one hour for every thirty. This sick time is to be available to all employees, whether full or part-time.
The regulations are expected to be issued by the Attorney General’s office in mid- June and the law is set to go into effect this July. However, some employers are concerned, saying that the compressed time frame simply doesn’t allow businesses enough time between that publication date and the implementation of the earned sick time law. This is the primary complaint being voiced by most businesses. Without those regulations in place for use as a guideline, they say, businesses will be unlikely to be able to fully comply with the new law quickly enough. There are also concerns about businesses modifying existing sick time policies to match up with the new regulations, particularly given that most are likely in the middle of their fiscal year. Representatives from both camps are now asking that the date for implementation be pushed back to January of 2016
On the other side of the argument are proponents of the new law, like Raise Up Massachusetts, who want the law to go into effect as it was originally intended – on the very same timeline chosen by voters. They claim that the people have shown that they want this law and that this matters more than any difficulties businesses may face as a consequence of implementing the new law.
