Must employers pay employees who are out sick?
Sick pay provisions can range from quite liberal to none. Even within a given employer, the maximum number of days granted may be uniform for all covered employees or may increase with seniority.
The purpose of a sick pay plan is to provide employees with a source of income during the period of time that they are unable to work due to accident or illness. Short-term time off from work because of personal or family illness should not be confused with disability leave, pregnancy leave, or family leave. Although sick leave, if provided, was often used in the past for those purposes (and in some cases, may still be used today under limited circumstances) these terms have become more specific and some are now regulated by law.
How do sick leave plans operate? Sick leave time can be accounted for in hours, partial days, or full days, depending on the employer's preference. Sick leave plans commonly have a short service requirement, generally one to six months, before new employees become eligible for benefits.
In many cases, employers provide salaried employees with a week or two per year of sick leave on a paid basis. In some cases, employees can accumulate their unused paid sick leave and carry over some or all of it to the following calendar year. Other employers expect the time, when needed, to be used during a given year and then "lost" if not used. Some plans provide sick leave on a per-disability basis. These generally provide more days of paid leave for an illness than annual plans.
What problems are associated with sick leave? Problems with sick leave arise when:
- employees begin to view paid sick leave as paid days off that they are entitled to even if they aren't sick;
- your policy on sick leave is not modified by changes in law or regulation.
How can fraudulent use of sick time be reduced? Attempting to end the fraudulent use of sick leave, employers have merged sick leave, vacation, and personal time off into paid time off policies. Although this means the employer will pay the employee for all these days, employees may use the time off more wisely. Paid time off is discussed in more detail at 46,110.
How are sick leave plans coordinated with other leaves? Sick leave plans generally are coordinated with the employer's short-term disability policy and paid time off policies. Some employers have arrangements under which an employee is entitled to a specific number of days per year of paid time off that may be used for vacation, sick leave, and personal leave. The time can be scheduled in advance, when possible, or taken on an emergency basis, as needed. This type of policy makes the employees accountable for selecting their days off and reduces the incidence of fraud (employees calling in sick for a paid day off when they are not sick).