Paid Sick Leave: Nebraska

Paid Sick Leave requirements for other states

Federal law and guidance on this subject should be reviewed together with this section.

Author: Michelle Barrett Falconer and Susie Wine, Littler

Summary

  • The Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act requires covered employers to provide paid sick time to eligible employees beginning October 1, 2025. See Paid Sick Leave.
  • Ensure that practices and policies comply with applicable paid sick leave requirements. See Key Compliance Steps.

Beginning October 1, 2025, a covered employer must provide paid sick time to eligible employees. An employer must comply with notice requirements beginning September 15, 2025. See Future Developments.

Key Compliance Steps

Ensure that practices and policies comply with applicable paid sick leave requirements:

  • Review and revise, if necessary, the employer's paid sick leave or paid time off (PTO) policy to ensure it meets the law's requirements and the employer's needs (e.g., choosing an accrual policy versus a frontloading policy);
  • Review crime victim leave, domestic violence leave and accommodation, and other related policies and revise if there is a conflict with the paid sick leave law;
  • If there is a posting requirement, check that the poster is displayed in a conspicuous location(s) that is accessible to all employees, is up-to-date and has not been covered up, damaged or defaced;
  • If there is a written notice requirement, check that the notice is being distributed to new and current employees in the required time frame;
  • Check that employees are receiving timely notice of any changes to the required poster/notice;
  • Audit timekeeping, payroll and benefits systems to ensure they properly calculate, track and detail accrued and used paid sick leave. If a third-party payroll processor is used, ensure it is complying with the law's requirements;
  • Train (or retrain) supervisory and managerial employees, as well as HR and payroll, on the law's requirements;
  • Provide other information to employees to show the employer's support, such as local community resources for domestic violence victims;
  • Remain alert to the various types of leave available and always provide the employee with the greatest benefit required; and
  • Track employees' leaves of absence, including:
    • The date the leave begins;
    • The type of leave; and
    • The expected return date.

Future Developments

Voters Approve Paid Sick Leave

Under the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (NHFWA), employers must provide paid sick time to eligible employees beginning October 1, 2025. The amount of leave varies according to the employer's size. Nebraska Initiative 436.

Employer Coverage

An employer means any individual, partnership, limited liability company, association, corporation, business trust, legal representative or organized group of persons that employs one or more employees. An employer does not include:

  • The US; or
  • The State of Nebraska or its agencies, departments or political subdivisions.

A small business with fewer than 20 employees during a given week, including full-time, part-time and temporary employees, must provide up to 40 hours of paid sick time per year. An employer with 20 or more employees on its payroll in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year must provide up to 56 hours per year. A year means a regular and consecutive 12-month period as determined by the employer.

Section 2; Section 3.

Employee Eligibility

An employee means any individual employed by an employer, but does not include:

  • Employees who work in Nebraska for fewer than 80 hours in a calendar year; and
  • Employees who are subject to the federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act.

Section 2.

Qualifying Reasons for Leave

An employee may use paid sick leave for any of the following reasons:

  • The employee's or a family member's mental or physical illness, injury or health condition; need for medical diagnosis, care or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury or health condition; or need for preventive medical care;
  • Attendance at a meeting necessitated by a child's mental or physical illness, injury or health condition at a school or place where the child is receiving care;
  • Closure of the employee's place of business or a child's school or place of care by order of a public official due to a public health emergency; and
  • A determination by health authorities having jurisdiction or by a health care professional that the employee's or family member's presence in the community may jeopardize the health of others because of exposure to a communicable disease, whether or not the employee or family member has actually contracted the disease.

Section 4.

A public health emergency means a declaration or proclamation related to a public health threat, risk, disaster or emergency that is made or issued by an authorized federal, state or local official.

A family member means:

  • A spouse;
  • A child, regardless of age (including a biological, adopted, foster or stepchild; a legal ward; and a child to whom the employee stands in loco parentis);
  • A parent (including a biological, adoptive, foster or stepparent; a legal guardian; a spouse's parent; and a person who stood in loco parentis when the employee or employee's spouse was a minor);
  • A grandparent (including a biological, adoptive, foster or step grandparent and a spouse's grandparent);
  • A grandchild (including a biological, adopted, foster or step grandchild and a spouse's grandchild);
  • A sibling (including a biological, adopted, foster or stepsibling and a spouse's sibling); and
  • Any other person related by blood to the employee or whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.

Section 2.

Accrual, Use and Carryover of Leave

Accrual

Employees accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked beginning October 1, 2025, or when employment begins, whichever is later. The maximum amount of paid sick time that an employee may accrue in a year depends on the employer's size (although an employer may select a higher limit):

  • Fewer than 20 employees: 40 hours; and
  • 20 or more employees: 56 hours.

Overtime-exempt employees are presumed to work 40 hours each workweek for accrual purposes. If an employee's normal workweek is fewer than 40 hours, then accrual is based on that normal workweek.

At its discretion, an employer may loan paid sick leave to an employee in advance of accrual.

Section 3.

Use

Employees may use paid sick time as it is accrued. The maximum amount of paid sick time that an employee may use in a year is 40 or 56 hours (depending on the employer's size), although an employer may select a higher limit. Section 3.

Paid sick leave may be used in the smaller of hourly increments or the smallest increment that the employer's payroll system uses to account for absences or use of other time.

An employer may not condition the use of sick leave on an employee searching for or finding a replacement worker to cover the hours during which the employee uses sick leave.

Section 4.

Carryover

An employee may carry over unused accrued paid sick leave to the following year, but an employer may limit use to 40 or 56 hours per year (depending on the employer's size).

Instead of allowing unused paid sick time to carry over from year to year, an employer may pay an employee for the unused time at the end of the year and provide the employee with an amount of paid sick time that meets or exceeds the NHFWA's requirements that is available for the employee's immediate use at the beginning of the subsequent year. See Frontloading; Compensation and Benefits.

Section 3.

Frontloading

Instead of allowing employees to accrue paid sick leave based on the number of hours worked, an employer may choose to frontload sick leave by providing all paid sick time that the employee is expected to accrue in a year at the beginning of the year. Carryover of unused leave is not required if an employer pays out the unused leave at the end of the year. Section 3.

Compensation and Benefits

An employer must compensate paid sick leave at the same hourly rate and with the same benefits (including health care benefits) as the employee normally earns during hours worked. The hourly rate may not be less than the applicable state minimum wage. Section 2.

Changes in Employment

If an employee is rehired within 12 months of a separation from employment, previously accrued but unused paid sick time must be reinstated. The employee is entitled to use that time, and accrue additional paid sick time, when employment begins again.

An employee who is transferred to a separate division, entity or location, but remains employed by the same employer, is entitled to use all of the paid sick time accrued at the prior division, entity or location.

Section 3.

Employee Notice Requirements

Paid sick leave must be provided upon an employee's oral request. When possible, the request must include the expected duration of the absence.

An employer that requires notice of the need to use paid sick leave must provide a written policy that contains reasonable procedures for the employee to provide notice. An employer that has not provided a copy of the policy to an employee may not deny sick time based on noncompliance with the policy.

Section 4.

Employee Documentation Requirements

For absences of more than three consecutive workdays, an employer may require reasonable documentation that paid sick leave was used for a qualifying reason. Reasonable documentation includes:

  • Documentation signed by a health care professional indicating that paid sick time is or was necessary; or
  • If the employee or their family member did not receive services from a health care professional, or if documentation cannot be obtained from a health care professional in reasonable time or without added expense, a written statement from the employee that they are taking or took paid sick time for a qualifying reason.

Section 4.

A health care professional means any person licensed under federal or state law to provide medical or emergency services. Section 2.

Employer Notice and Posting Requirements

Employers must give written notice to employees by September 15, 2025, or when employment begins, whichever is later. The notice must include the following information:

  • Beginning October 1, 2025, employees are entitled to paid sick time;
  • The amount of paid sick time;
  • The terms of its use guaranteed by the NHWFA;
  • An employer is prohibited from taking retaliatory personnel action against employees who request or use paid sick time;
  • Each employee has the right to file a suit or complaint if the employer denies paid sick time or subjects the employee to retaliatory personnel action for requesting or taking sick time; and
  • Contact information for the Nebraska Department of Labor where questions about NHFWA rights and responsibilities can be answered.

An employer must also display a poster that contains the above information in a conspicuous and accessible place in each establishment where employees are employed. If an employer does not maintain a physical workplace or an employee teleworks or performs work through a web-based or app-based platform, it must provide notice of such information via electronic communication or a conspicuous posting in the web-based or app-based platform. While the law does not specify when the poster should be displayed, the conservative approach is to post it as soon as it becomes available from the state.

The notice must be provided, and the poster must be displayed, in English and any language that is the first language spoken by at least five percent of the employer's workforce, if the Department has provided a model notice and poster in that language.

In addition, an employer must include the following information in, or on an attachment to, an employee's regular paycheck:

  • The amount of paid sick time available;
  • The amount of paid sick time taken to date in the year; and
  • The amount of pay received as paid sick time.

Section 6.

Confidentiality

An employer may not require disclosure of details relating to an employee's or their family member's health information as a condition of providing paid sick time, unless otherwise required by law.

In addition, unless otherwise required by law, any health information possessed by an employer regarding an employee or their family member must:

  • Be maintained on a separate form and in a separate file from other personnel information;
  • Be treated as confidential medical records; and
  • Not be disclosed except to the affected employee or with the employee's express permission.

Section 9.

Prohibited Actions

The NHFWA prohibits an employer from:

  • Interfering with, restraining or denying the exercise of, or attempt to exercise, any right protected by the law;
  • Taking retaliatory personnel action against a current or former employee because they have exercised, or attempted to exercise, a protected right, including:
    • Requesting or using paid sick time;
    • Filing a suit or complaint or informing any person about any employer's alleged violation of the law;
    • Participating in an investigation, hearing or proceeding or cooperating with or assisting the Nebraska Department of Labor in an investigation of alleged NHFWA violations; and
    • Informing any person of potential rights under the law; and
  • Counting the use of paid sick time under the employer's absence control policy as an absence that may lead to or result in a retaliatory personnel action or any other adverse action.

Section 5.

Retaliatory personnel action means:

  • The denial of any right guaranteed under the NHFWA; and
  • Any threat, termination, suspension, demotion, reduction of hours or pay, or other adverse action against an employee for exercising or attempting to exercise any right guaranteed under the law.

Section 2.

Enforcement and Penalties

The Department may issue a citation to an employer for violating the NHFWA, which may result in an administrative penalty of up to $500 for a first violation or up to $5,000 for subsequent violations.

An employee has the right to file a lawsuit in court no later than four years after the alleged violation of the law occurs and may be entitled to recover the full amount of the judgment and all costs, including reasonable attorney fees.

Section 8.

Interaction With Other Laws and Policies

An employer with a paid leave policy, such as a paid time off policy, that allows a sufficient amount of leave that meets the NHFWA's requirements and that may be used for the same reasons and under the same conditions, is not required to provide additional paid sick leave under the law. Section 3.

The NHFWA provides minimum requirements pertaining to paid sick time and does not:

  • Prohibit an employer from adopting or retaining a paid sick time policy that is more generous than the law requires;
  • Diminish an employer's obligation to comply with any contract, collective bargaining agreement, employment benefit plan or other agreement providing more generous paid sick time than required by law; or
  • Preempt, limit or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy or standard that provides for greater accrual or use of paid sick time or that extends other protections to employees.

Any waiver of paid sick time rights and remedies by any agreement, policy, form or condition of employment is void and unenforceable.

Section 10.

There are no other developments to report at this time. Continue to check HR & Compliance Center regularly for the latest information on this and other topics.

Additional Resources

Paid Sick Leave by State and Municipality

Leave Laws by State and Municipality