Proposed Federal Bill Would Pre-Empt State and Local Paid Sick Leave Laws

On November 2, 2017, three Republican Representatives, Mimi Walters (R-CA), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), introduced a federal paid leave bill that would give employers the option of providing their employees a minimum number of paid leave hours per year and instituting a flexible workplace arrangement. The bill would amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) and use the statute’s existing pre-emption mechanism to offer employers a safe harbor from the hodgepodge of state and local paid sick leave laws. Currently eight states and more than 30 local jurisdictions have passed paid sick leave laws.

The minimum amount of paid leave employers would be required to provide depends on the employer’s size and employee’s tenure. The bill does not address whether an employer’s size is determined by its entire workforce or the number of employees in a given location.

In addition to paid leave hours, employers would be required to offer at least one of the following flexible workplace arrangements: (1) a compressed work schedule that allows employees to increase their daily hours so as to qualify for a four-day workweek, (2) a biweekly work program that permits employees to work a total of 80 hours over a two-week period, (3) a telecommuting program, (4) a job-sharing program, (5) flexible scheduling, or (6) a predictable schedule. Employees would become eligible to participate in a flexible workplace arrangement once they have worked for the employer for 12 months and at least 1,000 hours.

The bill would not affect state paid family leave insurance programs, such as one about to take effect in New York, nor would it affect job-protection coverage afforded by the Family and Medical Leave Act. If signed into law, the bill would become the first ever federal paid leave law.