During the 2024 legislative session, the Connecticut General Assembly expanded the state’s paid sick days law by applying it to more employers and broadening the definition of a “family member” and the qualifying circumstances.
Connecticut first enacted paid sick leave in 2011, but the law only applied to employers with at least 50 workers in specific retail and service occupations.
The 2024 law is an expansion of those 2011 guidelines. Here’s what to know about how the law has changed.
Who will be covered under the 2024 expansion?
As of Jan. 1, 2025, employers with at least 25 employees will be required to offer paid sick days. That employee count will lower to 11 in 2026 and then again to one on Jan. 1, 2027.
Seasonal workers — those who work 120 days or fewer in any year — will remain largely exempt.
The law does not require additional time off at workplaces that already offer 40 hours of paid leave, regardless of whether it is classified as vacation, personal days or sick time.
How is paid sick time off accrued under the new law?
Employees will accrue one hour of paid sick leave for each 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours per year. Employers may provide their workers with more time off or allow them to accrue at a faster rate if they choose.
What can paid sick time be used for?
Employees can use paid sick time to respond to the physical and mental health needs of themselves or their family members.
Eligible circumstances include recovering from an illness, injury or health condition; care or preventative care for physical or mental health; and medical and psychological care following family violence or a sexual assault.
Employees can also use paid sick time for a mental health day, which is defined as a day during which a worker attends to their emotional and psychological well-being.
And the new law allows the time to be used when a public official orders the closure of the employee’s workplace or a family member’s school or place of care due to a public health emergency, and when an employee or family member is deemed at risk to others after being exposed to a communicable illness.
Who is considered a “family member” under the new law?
“Family member” is defined as an employee’s spouse, sibling, child, parent, grandparent or grandchild. The law allows for individuals related to an employee whose “close association the employee shows to be equivalent to those family relationships” to count too.
Under the previous paid sick leave law, only children and spouses were included in the definition of a “family member.”
What if I need an extended medical leave?
Connecticut employees who need extended time off from work may qualify for job-protected leave and income replacement, but those are available under programs separate from Connecticut’s paid sick days law.
Job-protected leave has been available under the Connecticut Family and Medical Leave Act since the 1990s — though the program was expanded in January 2022 — while income replacement has been administered by the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority since December 2021.
Qualifying life events for both programs are: The birth or adoption of a child, a serious health condition (suffered by the employee or a family member), an organ or bone marrow donation, and circumstances surrounding a family member’s armed forces service.
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