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  • As a small business owner, a day off from work can be hard to come by. Nevertheless, come election day, flu season, or travel season, your employees will need a resource to turn to in order to know whether or not they have to show up for work. It’s important to include an employee leave policy in your employee handbook, so your employees understand the rules and expectations about the amount of time they’re allowed to be away from work. 

    “There are so many different types of employee leave, and each bucket may require its own policies in the company handbook,” says Beth Milito, senior executive counsel at the National Federation of Independent Business’s (NFIB) Legal Center. 

    When crafting employee leave policies, you should first check the employee leave laws in your state. Employee leave laws govern whether an employer must allow employees to take time off―either paid or unpaid―under a different number of circumstances, such as vacations, sick days, holidays, bereavement, and jury duty. Leave laws also address whether an employer must pay accrued leave to employees upon separation from employment.

     Vacation employee leave.

    Georgia Leave Laws

    In Georgia, vacations, sick days, holidays, bereavement, jury duty, and more are all governed by the state’s leave laws. Here’s what Georgia employers need to know about employee leave laws in their state.

    Vacation leave

    Vacations are nice to take every now and then, but that’s all they are: nice to have. In Georgia, employers are not required to provide employees with paid or unpaid vacation benefits.

    However, many small businesses offer paid time off to stay competitive in recruiting and retaining employees. According to NFIB, 73 percent of small businesses offer PTO to full-time employees. While the number of days offered is typically dependent on an employee’s length of service, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says many offer an average of 10 days for PTO each year.

    Should you decide to terminate a worker’s employment, or an employee decides to quit, it’s important to establish a clear policy regarding payment for any vacation time left on the table. In Georgia, employers need to establish policies either:

    • Requiring employees be paid for accrued vacation time.
    • Denying employees payment for accrued vacation time.
    • Disqualifying employees from payment of accrued vacation if they are terminated.
    • Disqualifying employees from payment of accrued vacation if they fail to comply with specific requirements, such as giving two weeks’ notice.

    Sick leave

    What happens if an employee feels under the weather? In Georgia, you aren’t required to offer paid or unpaid sick leave. However, like vacation time, many small businesses will offer employees time to recover from an illness. According to NFIB, 56 percent offer paid sick leave, with many offering a week or more.

    Bereavement

    Bereavement leave is time taken by an employee due to the death of another individual, usually a close relative. Georgia leave laws do not require employers to provide employees with bereavement leave or leave to attend funerals. However, NFIB says that nearly nine out of 10 companies offer bereavement leave.

    Holidays

    Small businesses in Georgia are not required to provide paid or unpaid holidays off. However, NFIB data shows that nearly 80 percent of small businesses offer paid time off for holidays. The typical paid holidays include:

    • New Year’s Day
    • Memorial Day
    • Easter
    • Independence Day
    • Labor Day
    • Thanksgiving Day
    • Christmas Day

    Jury duty

    Georgia law makes it illegal to discharge, discipline, or penalize an employee for taking leave for attending a judicial proceeding, including a subpoena, jury duty summons, or other court order. While Georgia doesn’t have any laws specifically requiring you to provide paid leave, the Attorney General is in favor of it.

    Voting leave

    On election days, Georgia leave laws require employers to provide up to two hours of leave for an employee to vote. However, the employee must give reasonable notice and the polls also can’t be open for at least two hours before or after the employee’s shift.

    Georgia business owners aren’t required to pay employees for voting leave. You can also determine the hours an employee may leave their shift to vote.

    Handling Employee Leave

    Leave laws vary by state, so it’s important for employers across the country to be informed when creating employee leave policies. Whether you own a business in Georgia or some other state, it’s important to make sure your employee handbook explains how your business handles employee leave. 

    As a Professional Employer Organization, GMS can help ensure your handbook is updated with the necessary laws and regulations to best protect your business. We’ll save you time and stress by managing key business functions like payroll, benefits administration, and other important services. 

    Contact our Georgia office or one of our many other locations today to talk to one of our experts about how we can help you make your business simpler, safer, and stronger.

  • The state of family medical leave has been in flux in New Jersey over the past year. In February, Governor Phil Murphy signed an amendment to expand both New Jersey’s Family Leave Act (NJFLA) and Family Leave Insurance law (NJFLI). Those changes went into effect back on June 30, 2019, but they wouldn’t be the only adjustments to leave laws during the years.

    As of Oct. 7, 2019, business owners have a pair of new laws to plan for when it comes to how the state processes leave applications. With so many changes, it can be hard to keep all the new family leave updates straight. To help, here’s a breakdown of what business owners need to know about the changes to family leave in New Jersey over the course of 2019 – and why it might be important to business outside the Garden State as well.

    A mother taking family medical leave from work after the birth of her new child.

    What’s Going on with Family Leave Laws in New Jersey?

    Changes to the NJFLA and NJFLI

    While New Jersey previously had the NJFLA and NJFLI both in place, the new amendments essentially increased the level of benefits and protections for any eligible employees who wish to use family leave. As was the case before, New Jersey employers must provide family leave to eligible workers and cannot terminate them as a result of this leave. These employees must meet the following requirements to be considered eligible for family leave. 

    • Their employer has at least 30 employees (it was 50 employees prior to June 30, 2019) or is a government entity of any size
    • The employee has worked for that employer for at least a year, amassing at least 1,000 hours over the course of the last 12 months
    • The family leave is used to care for a child of younger than 1 year old or to care for a family member, or someone equivalent to family, with a serious health condition

    In addition to reducing the employer size threshold found in the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), many other changes went into effect for both NJFLA and NJFLI in June. Here are some of the more notable differences that directly impact employers.

    Reduced notice requirements

    The FMLA requires advance notice of 30 days for leave requests. However, New Jersey’s amendment drops the advance notice requirement to 15 days for an intermittent leave request for family members with serious health conditions.

    Additional time for paid leave benefits

    Originally, New Jersey employees were only allowed six weeks of paid family leave within a 12-month period. The amendments double that amount to 12 weeks. It also increased intermittent paid leave benefits from 42 to 56 days in that same 12-month period, while extending intermittent use to foster care placement in addition to care for newborns or adopted children.

    Higher weekly benefit amount cap

    Employees taking paid leave earn a portion of their weekly salary. Currently, that rate is two-thirds of an employee’s weekly salary, with weekly payments capped at 53 percent of New Jersey’s statewide weekly remuneration. As of July 1, 2020, that pay will increase to 80 percent of a weekly salary, with weekly payments capped at 70 percent of the statewide remuneration.

    No more PTO mandates

    Previously, employers had the option to require employees to use up to two weeks of PTO in place of paid leave time. The new amendment bars employers from mandating PTO use, although it still gives employees the option to do so at their own discretion.

    October amendments

    While the latest amendments don’t offer as many changes as the ones that took effect in June, they do institute a pair of notable updates that aim to speed up the leave application process for people with new children.

    The first change saves employees the trouble of completing multiple applications for leave. With the new rules, the state will automatically process applications for leave insurance after an employee applies for temporary disability. The second update allows employees to submit pregnancy-related temporary disability claims up to 60 days ahead of the actual claim period as long as they know when they’ll expect to start their period of leave.

    Why Family Leave Changes Matter to Business Owners

    As with any legislative changes that affect businesses, the updates to NJFLA and NJFLI mean that business owners in New Jersey need to take precautions to make sure that their company is compliant with the new family leave rules. If your company falls in the 30-employees or more threshold, you’ll need to abide by all the new rules listed above. You’ll also want to update your employee handbook to include these new policies.

    If your company employs fewer than 30 people, you don’t have to follow the same details. However, you can mirror the new family leave laws even if you aren’t legally required to do so. Matching the new family leave rules can serve as a sign of good faith to your current employees – and help you stay competitive with bigger companies that have to honor the new rules. Whether you decide to modify your family leave policy or not, it’s important to document it in your handbook as well. 

    While these new updates only affect business owners in New Jersey, they may serve as a sign of things to come for people in other states. It’s not uncommon for New Jersey to act as a testing ground for legislative changes. As such, other states may mimic similar changes to their Family Medical Leave Act laws in the future.

    Whether it’s family leave or something else, it’s never easy to stay on top of all the legislative changes that can impact your business. At GMS, our team of experts can help you stay compliant with any new rules and regulations while helping your business simplify key HR functions like payroll and risk management. Contact our New Jersey office or one of our other locations today to talk to one of our experts about how we can help you save time and money through professional HR administration.