OREGON SICK LEAVE LAW: Everything You Need to Know

Every Oregon business, even those with only one person, is subject to the state’s sick leave law, which requires up to 40 hours of sick time off per employee every calendar year. Sick leave may be unpaid depending on the size and location of your company, while certain employers are obligated to provide paid sick leave. Although Oregon’s sick leave law is not as complicated as those in other states, such as California, you must still ensure that your firm is in compliance. Here’s all you need to know about the Oregon Sick leave and PTO law.

How Oregon Sick Leave Law Works

Sick leave in Oregon is computed as one hour of sick time earned for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 40 hours. You may grant more sick time at your discretion, but make sure that it applies to all employees. To comply with Oregon’s sick leave regulations, you must be aware of issues such as paid vs. unpaid leaves, employee entitlement, authorized sick time usage, and combining sick leave with paid time off (PTO).

Paid versus Unpaid Sick Leave

Employers in Oregon who have at least ten employees must give paid sick time. If you have at least six employees and your business or any employee is situated in Portland, you must give paid sick time. If you have fewer employees, you may decide to make sick time unpaid; nevertheless, making sick time paid might be an appealing advantage for a small business.

Some firms’ staffing levels may change, particularly seasonal businesses that do not employ full-time employees all year. If this applies to your organization, you must compute your daily average for any 20-week period in the prior year. Your sick time must be paid if your company has a daily average of 10 or more employees (six or more in Portland).

Employee Eligibility & Entitlement

Employees of all types—full-time, part-time, and seasonal—are entitled to up to 40 hours of sick leave per year from their company. (This regulation requires full-time employees to work a minimum of 40 hours per year; part-time and seasonal employees may earn less.) However, like with most legal issues, there are exceptions. When you are not compelled to grant sick leave to an employee, consider the following scenarios:

When an employee is on sick leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA),
When an employee is the small business owner’s parent, spouse, or child
When a worker is enrolled in a federal or state work training program
When an employee is enrolled in a work study program
When the employee is an independent contractor

According to Oregon law, you are not required to grant sick time off immediately after hiring a new employee. You can require your employees to work for you for at least 90 days before they are eligible for sick leave, as you can with many other benefits.

When an employee leaves your firm, you are not required to pay out any accrued and unused sick time, unless your organization has a policy that requires you to do so. Whatever your corporate policy is, you must adhere to it at all times.

Uses of Allowed Sick Time

Your employees may utilize sick leave for a variety of pre-approved reasons, including self-care and specialized instances in which they are caring for others.

Your staff may take sick leave for the following purposes:

Appointments with doctors
Healing from an injury
Illness or sickness
Illness of the mind
Bereavement
Domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault, and other related incidents

Employees may also take sick leave when they are not sick or injured in order to:

Care for a sick or injured family member
Take a family member to a doctor’s visit or a mental health checkup.
Look after an ill or injured child.
Take care of a youngster whose school or daycare is closed due to a public health emergency.

Sick Leave vs. PTO Law In Oregon

Some businesses wish to make things easy for themselves by combining their PTO and sick leave policies into a single policy. You can do so as long as your PTO policy fulfills Oregon’s minimal sick leave requirements. This does not relieve you of the obligation to grant additional leave as required by Oregon or federal law.

While combining leave policies into a single wide policy can be useful in states without regulations similar to Oregon’s, we do not suggest it in Oregon. It’s ideal to establish a separate PTO policy so that you may immediately adjust your sick leave policy if Oregon’s law changes. In Oregon, combining these rules may be permissible provided you provide your employees with unlimited PTO.

Employer Prerequisites

In addition to giving sick time to your employees, you must keep accurate records of their sick time accrual and usage, provide them with information about their rights, and provide them with frequent updates on their sick time balance.

Notice and Publication

Placing compliance posters in prominent locations around your office is one way to ensure compliance with employment and HR laws. The Oregon sick time statute includes similar requirements, such as posting a sick time placard where employees may easily see it. The poster must contain basic information about their sick leave rights.

However, if your organization is far away, you can put a notice on your intranet, or electronic bulletin board, or even send out a companywide email notification. If you issue a regular internal newsletter, provide a link to your company’s poster, as well as any other compliance needs, in each message.

Statements of Sick Time Balance

Employers in Oregon are required by law to furnish employees with quarterly statements detailing the amount of sick leave they have accrued and spent. You can make this information available everywhere, and if you use payroll software, you can include it with every pay stub, meeting the requirements of the law.

Requesting Documentation

Be cautious when requesting documentation that an employee was absent due to illness or caring for a sick family member. While requiring paperwork when an employee takes sick leave may appear smart, you can only do so in the following situations:

If an employee is absent for more than three days in a row,
If an employee’s sick time is expected to be more than three consecutive working days (surgery, medical treatment),
If an employee fails to provide appropriate or reasonable notice of their sick leave (10 days if foreseeable, reasonable for illness or injury), the employer may terminate the employee’s employment.
If you have a valid basis to question an employee’s use of sick leave (high absenteeism, PTO abuse),

Acquiring and Calculating Sick Leave Pay

When developing an Oregon sick leave policy, you must assure compliance with the law by requiring employees to accrue time and pay it correctly. You can accrue employee time in two ways: accrual or lump amount.

Obtaining Sick Leave

As previously stated, sick time accrual necessitates calculating at least one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked. You can cease accruing sick time once an employee has 40 hours in their sick time bank. You can continue accruing hours for your employees if your company’s sick leave policy is more liberal than state standards.

Even if you require employees to be on the job for 90 days before they can utilize sick time, their accrual begins the day they start. They are eligible to use sick time once they have completed the 90-day minimum.

While this system allows employees to earn sick leave based on their hours worked, it requires additional administrative effort. This also increases the likelihood of administrative errors or miscalculations.

Sick Leave in a Single Instalment

The lump sum option entails just giving employees the complete sick leave they are given each year on January 1. This method will save you time in the administrative department.

The disadvantage of lump sum is when employees start before January 1. You would need to prorate their sick time depending on their start date in this case. So, if you offer 40 hours of sick time every year and a new recruit begins on July 1 (the halfway point of the year), you must prorate their sick time by half, or 20 hours. Even with this extra step, we believe that lump sum is the superior, less administratively intensive method of calculating sick time off.

Pay Calculation

If your organization is required to pay employees for sick leave, you must pay them their regular rate of pay. If hourly employees only get one rate of pay, you must give them their usual hourly rate for every hour they are absent due to illness. Use the weighted average of the hourly employee’s rates of pay if they have more than one rate of pay.

Salaried employees must be paid the complete amount earned while on sick leave. For example, if an employee earns a weekly salary of $2,500 and takes one day of sick leave, you must pay them $2,000 in regular earnings plus $500 for the one day of sick leave.

If you have commissioned employees who do not earn a base salary, you must pay them at least minimum wage for each hour of sick leave they take. If you do give commissioned employees a base salary, you must pay them the rate equal to their hourly rate or the minimum wage, whichever is higher.

While overtime, bonuses, tips, and other pay over an employee’s base rate do not factor into sick leave pay calculations, shift differential pay does, so make sure you’re calculating appropriately if you have employees who fall into that category.

Employee Retention

The state of Oregon enables employees to carry over up to 40 hours of sick time per year. Employers can also limit sick leave accrual to 40 hours per year and cap total sick leave balance per employee at 80 hours. You have the option to increase these restrictions at your discretion.

So, if an employee did not take any sick leave previous year, they can carry over all 40 hours. You can halt their accrual once they’ve completed their 40 hours for the year. If they utilize sick time and their balance falls below 80 hours, you must restart their accrual. Even if they have more than 40 hours of sick time at the end of the year, you can limit their rollover to 40 hours.

Legal Considerations

Oregon’s sick time rule is quite simple, yet it still necessitates attention to detail to avoid falling out of compliance. If you calculate pay erroneously or violate an employee’s legal rights, you could face state fines and penalties, as well as employee lawsuits.

Penalties and fines

Penalty wages are legal in Oregon. Failure to properly pay an employee’s sick time may result in a penalty wage of up to eight times the employee’s regular rate of pay. Even minor payroll errors can result in this hefty consequence.

Oregon also allows for a $1,000 fine each infraction. So, if you have three employees who take sick leave but your payroll team fails to properly calculate their sick leave pay, your company will not only owe those employees eight times their regular rate of pay for each hour of sick leave, but you will also owe the state $3,000 in fines.

Employee Claims

Employers who violate the sick leave rules, whether willfully or unknowingly, face hefty penalties in Oregon. Employee lawsuits can be extremely costly for businesses, both financially and in terms of reputation.

When an employee requests sick leave, do not retaliate, harass, discipline, or dismiss them. Taking any of these activities could result in a harassment or wrongful termination case from an employee.

You may have a reasonable basis to question an employee’s use of sick time off if they have taken excessive time off or misused other policies. However, make careful to document these worries in order to have proof of a real issue.

Maintaining Consistency and Keeping Records

Keep meticulous records in all HR-related problems. Maintain legal compliance by keeping a record of each employee’s accrued and spent sick time at least quarterly. Keep any records pertaining to an employee’s sick time off as well. Because they are medical records, you must maintain them separate from the employee’s regular personnel file and place them in a confidential file with limited access.

Be fair and consistent with your sick leave policy, both in terms of the amount of time you grant and how you respond to employees who take absence. Remember, what you do for one employee must be done for all.

Does Oregon Have A Paid Sick Leave Law?

All employees in Oregon are entitled to sick leave under state law. If your employer has 10 or more employees (6 or more if they have a Portland site), you are entitled to paid sick time. Otherwise, sick time is protected but not compensated.

What Is The New Oregon Sick Leave Law?

Private firms with one or more employees in the state of Oregon will be required to provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave within a 12-month period beginning January 1, 2023.

Do Sick Days Roll Over In Oregon?

Yes, businesses are required by law to allow employees to carry over up to 40 hours of unused sick leave to the next year.

Can Your Employer Ask Why You’re Calling In Sick?

When a worker calls in sick, it is permissible for the employer to inquire about the cause for their absence.

Can They Say No If You Call In Sick?

Whether they like it or not, bosses should not deny your request for sick time off.

In Conclusion,

Most businesses are able to avoid violating Oregon’s sick leave statute. To ensure that you are part of that group, know and understand what you must supply to each employee and how to avoid any issues.