The City of Pittsburgh Paid Sick Days Act became effective in March of 2020. The City recently announced that it will begin targeted enforcement efforts to ensure Pittsburgh’s employers are providing employees with paid sick days as mandated.

Although employers are not required to include an employee’s accrued paid sick time on each paystub, employers are required to keep accurate records and provide employees with easy access to their accrued paid sick time. A failure to keep records will result in a presumed violation of the Act.

The Office of Equal Protection plans to publish the results of its compliance investigations on its website, deeming a business a “Safe Workplace” if it meets requriements, a “Thriving Workplace” if it exceeds requirements, and a “Non-Compliant Workplace” if it fails to meet minimum requirements.

Key provisions of the Pittsburgh Paid Sick Days Act are as follow:

·                All employees who work 35 or more hours a year within the City must accrue at least one hour of paid sick time for every 35 hours worked.

·                All employees must be allowed to accrue up to 24 hours of paid sick time, and employees in workplaces with 15 or more employees must be allowed to accrue up to 40 hours of paid sick time.

·                Unless an employer implements a policy that “front loads” the maximum accrual required by the Act, employees must be allowed to “carry over” any accrued, unused paid sick time from the prior year.

·                Employees may begin to use paid sick time after 90 days of employment, but separated employees re-hired within 6 months are entitled to reinstatement of their previously accrued paid sick time and may use it immediately.

·                Employees must be allowed to use paid sick time for their own illness, injury, or to seek preventive medical care or to care for a family member with an illness, injury, or who needs preventive medical care.

·                Employers may require employees to provide reasonable notice of paid sick time use, especially for foreseeable absences to attend health care appointments, but if an employer has not implemented its own notification policy employees may provide notice at least one hour prior to the start of a scheduled shift or as soon as possible if the need for sick time is emergent or unforeseeable.

• Employees must not face retaliation for requesting or using paid sick time.

This Act only applies to workers within the city limits. However, employers with 26 or more employees must also be aware of Allegheny County’s Paid Sick Leave ordinance that provides covered employees with similar rights and benefits. Sick leave is also mandated by law in the City of Philadelphia.

In order to avoid a contact with a compliance investigator, businesses within the City of Pittsburgh may submit a copy of their paid sick time policy and a photo of the posted notice to “fast track” a compliance finding by the Office of Equal Protection. This is available at: https://pittsburghpa.gov/mayor/paidsickleave.