We passed the one-year mark for the Paid Leave for All Workers Act (PLAWA) in Illinois and Missouri is on the cusp of the effective date of its own new Paid Sick Leave Act. To put this in context, back in 1993, Congress enacted the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). It provided for 12 weeks of unpaid leave for employees who became sick or needed to care for a sick family member. Some employers generously transformed the FMLA leave into paid leave. Others merged paid vacation into the FMLA leave. FMLA has generated litigation over the years but has generally remained the same over the past 32 years.
I remember when I adopted my two sons, I took unpaid FMLA leave to care for each of them for the 12 weeks after they arrived home. I was lucky that I could afford unpaid time off; many workers are not so lucky.
Some States have moved in to alleviate the gap between paid and unpaid leave. Thirteen States have paid family and medical leave. Additionally, Illinois, Maine and Nevada have laws requiring paid time off for all workers. Paid time off leave mandates that employees accrue one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked. Employers must keep track of the time and provide the time with few or no questions asked.
The Illinois Department of Labor provides good detail on the Act at https://labor.illinois.gov/laws-rules/paidleave.html
Missouri voters approved paid sick time in November 2024 and the Missouri Department of Labor states the law will go into effect on May 1, 2025. Details on what this new law will look like are here: https://labor.mo.gov/dls/proposition-a-paid-sick-time-benefits-faqs. Please note there is pending litigation challenging the vote so the effective date may change.
Overall, in the United States, 27% of private sector employees have access to paid family leave. However, this varies greatly by sector. Many high tech workers have paid leave; but other sectors have lower rates of paid family leave than that of the private sector workforce as a whole. The sectors with the lowest access to paid leave include construction (16 percent), leisure and hospitality (8 percent), accommodation and food service (7 percent), and transportation and warehouse work (9 percent).
Stay tuned to see how Missouri paid leave shapes up and if other states join in to adopt paid leave.
