Arizona Employers Prepare to Implement New Paid Sick Time Law

After surviving a legal challenge rejected by the Arizona Supreme Court, Arizona’s $10 minimum wage enacted under Proposition 206 is already in effect, and the sick leave portion of the law takes effect in July. For many companies, this will require new paid time off and sick leave policies, or at least revisions to their existing policies.

With enactment of Proposition 206, Arizona joins other states with sick leave laws, including Illinois, California, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. As previously reported by the Retail Law blog, the Illinois law took effect in January 2017.

The Arizona law generally applies to all Arizona employees; it makes no distinction between salaried, hourly, full-time, part-time, temporary or seasonal employees. All employees must accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.

Paid sick leave can be used for medical care of a mental or physical illness, injury or health condition of the employee or their children, spouse or registered domestic partner, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, or any other individual related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship. Paid sick leave cannot be used, however, to bond with a new child or for grief and recovery following a family member’s death.

Employers cannot ask the reason for taking paid sick leave unless three consecutive days off are requested, in which case they can request documentation that the leave was requested for permitted reasons.

For questions or more information on this topic, please contact the authors, Melissa Costello or Jay Zweig, or any member of the Retail team.