2017 Autumn Newsletter – More Than a Headache

October 19, 2017

If your employees are not being paid sick time, your prognosis could be terminal! Before July 1, 2017, Arizona employers were legally obligated to pay their employees only minimum wage and overtime. They also could offer paid time off for vacation, personal reasons, or illness, and dictate what rules their employees had to follow to obtain such benefits.

When Arizona voted, in November 2016, in favor of increasing the hourly rate for minimum wage, the approved proposition also created a first-time statutory obligation for earned paid sick time (EPST). With certain caps and restrictions, for every thirty hours worked, an employee, temporary or permanent, full or part time, now receives one “sick” hour off — paid. The only exceptions are casual babysitters and federal and state employees.