New Paid Sick Leave Executive Order Could Require Changes in Federal Contractors' Policies

Employment Law

The push for federally mandated paid sick leave continues to escalate, with President Obama's paid sick leave executive order (EO #13706) requiring federal contractors' benefits to conform to a number of new requirements beginning in 2017.  Existing paid leave benefits would be in compliance only if:

• They are available to all employees working on federal contracts, regardless of the number of hours worked;
  
  
• The amount of accrued leave meets the Executive Order's very specific requirements; and
  
  
• The leave can be used for the same purposes and under the same conditions specified in the Order, including leave taken to care for anyone with an "affinity whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship."

The Department of Labor is expected to publish a proposed rule by the end of the year and a final rule by September 1, 2016.  Separately, over 200 college business professors called on Congress to pass the FAMILY Act (H.R. 1439/S. 786) to establish a national paid family and medical leave insurance system paid for by a payroll tax on employers and employees.  The professors noted that "[e]ven among the most highly paid and sought after employees, business policies, practices and culture too often discourage or prevent women, and men, from taking the time they need to care for a new child or address a serious health condition."