Sick Pay - Paid Sick Leave
You might be surprised to learn that, in the absence of an employment
agreement that indicates otherwise, your employee rights likely do
not automatically entitle you to sick pay.
That's because, at this writing, only one state and three municipalities
require employers to provide sick leave benefits to employees, whether
paid or not.*
In fact, nearly 75 percent of low-wage workers in the U.S. do not have
sick leave benefits either with or without pay, while about 43 percent
of all U.S. workers do not have paid sick leave benefits. As with many
traditional benefits, providing sick
pay is voluntary for employers.
But some employers have traditionally provided paid sick leave anyway,
to attract new and retain current employees. Some of those employers also
voluntarily include accrued sick pay in employees' final
paychecks, as incentive to reduce sick-leave abuse.
Under the Federal Family
and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), your employee rights might entitle
you to take leave to care for yourself or family members, without losing
your job or benefits. However,
the Act does
not require your employer to issue sick pay to you while you're on
FMLA leave.
If your employer does provide a traditional sick pay benefit to the group
of employees of which you're part, then you are generally entitled to it
if you follow the rules. Because it's generally a voluntary benefit, your
employer may stipulate the rules of paid sick leave, such as in an employee
policy manual.
For example, to receive your sick pay, your employer is likely entitled
to require you by policy to submit a written excuse from a doctor for missing
work.
If you violate a paid sick leave policy, then your employer is likely
entitled to deprive you of sick pay and worse, maybe even fire you.
However, the courts typically consider all factors involved, to decide
whether or not employers really had good
cause to fire employees for company
policy violation. See an attorney about
that.
Read About Employee Benefits for information
regarding avenues of relief, should your employer deprive you of the sick
pay or any other employee benefit to
which you're rightfully entitled.
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