News

October 24, 2024

Is Mandatory Paid Vacation Leave on the Horizon?

At least three states (Maine, Nevada, Illinois) and a few locales have enacted a law requiring certain private sector employers to provide employees with paid vacation or paid time off (PTO). This idea is not new. Fifteen years ago, Congress considered the “Paid Vacation Act of 2009” H.R. 2564.  The idea however does seem to have some renewed national attention.

In February of this year the Hamilton Project suggested the federal government should impose such a mandate. “By amending the FLSA, the federal government could ensure that people who put in enough working hours generate a certain amount of paid leave, called “earned time off.” “Earned time off” allows workers to control how they use the paid leave they earn.” They suggested that independent contractors would also be covered based on the hours that they work. This month, they formalized and published their proposal. “A federal guarantee for earned paid time off.”

The concept would likely be years in the making from legislation to enactment. To succeed, it may need to preempt all the state and local laws that offer other paid leave such as for illness, medical care, family care, voting, military service, and more. And that can get tricky.  That could also work well for employers, abolishing the need to comply with the patchwork of divergent and partially overlapping state and local paid leave mandates. In the interim, watch your state and local legislatures. This is a proposal that is likely to attract their attention as well.