Gov. Ned Lamont and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz were joined by Senators Martin Looney, D-New Haven, and Julie Kushner, D-Danbury and Rep. Manny Sanchez, D-New Britain, among others during a ceremonial bill signing in New Haven to mark the passage of a new law expanding paid sick leave requirements to businesses with 50 or fewer employees.
“This is truly a big deal,” Lamont said, who signed the bill into law one week ago. “This has been a long time coming.”
Under legislation signed by former Gov. Dannel Malloy in 2011, all businesses with more than 50 employees had to provide 40 hours of paid sick leave to their employees, including service businesses, like restaurants, but the latest bill expands that requirement to include businesses with at least 25 employees in 2025, 11 in 2026, and then a single employee by 2027.
The legislation also expands reasons why employees can take leave time, including to care for a sick family member, increases the rate by which employees accumulate sick leave hours, and prohibits employers from requesting documentation or advance notice for sick leave.
According to Kushner, the law will affect roughly 12 percent of workers who don’t currently get paid sick leave, although she acknowledged most employers already provide it.
“It’s also about making sure people have their jobs protected,” said Kushner, who is co-chair of the Labor and Public Employees Committee. “People didn’t even have job protection before this if they were out for a day or two or three, so there is so much in this bill that is critically important.”
“This was one of the most important bills of the 2024 session,” Looney said. “It’s unfortunate that we have to mandate this.”
The legislation was opposed by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA), and Republicans in the legislature who said the “new law will crush jobs and small businesses.”
“This will hurt employers and employees by eliminating their ability to negotiate employment terms themselves,” said Sen. Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, and Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott. “Rather than nurturing our small mom and pop businesses, this onerous mandate does just the opposite. The mandate will eventually apply to Connecticut employers with just one employee. This is Big Government forcing the engines of our economy to comply.”
Lamont, Looney, and Kushner used the signing to highlight the differences between the two major parties ahead of the upcoming 2024 election and address pushback, saying the Republicans and the business lobby were likewise opposed to the Connecticut Paid Family and Medical Leave Act (PFMLA), and raising the minimum wage.
Looney responded to the Republican statement, calling it a “piece of fiction.”
“In an election year I think it’s important to recognize that most Republicans were not supportive of this,” Looney said, pointing out Republican opposition to the latest wage contracts for state employees.
“With a lot of good ideas, there was some pushback,” Lamont said. “Hold it dude, I think you told me the same thing about the minimum wage, I think you told me the same thing about paid family medical leave.”
“I came out of small business, we tended to do this already,” Lamont said. “If you aren’t doing this, that’s why we needed a law.”
The paid sick leave requirements for businesses with fewer than 50 employees come on the back of the PFMLA, which allows employees of businesses with at least one employee to take up to three months of family or medical leave paid for through a trust fund.
The leave can be used for either medical reasons, child bonding after birth, or to care for a relative or loved one facing medical issues. The fund is paid for through a .5 percent deduction from the employee’s paycheck, with no contribution by the employer.
Kushner said the expanded paid sick leave legislation fills in a “loophole” in the PFMLA for workers whose illness is not severe enough or who aren’t out of work long enough to be covered under that program.
“I love the fact that we are becoming known as the most family-friendly state in the country,” Lamont said. “I love the fact that we have more young families or soon-to-be-young families moving into the state of Connecticut for a variety of reasons, one of which is we make it a little bit easier to take care of the family you love and the work that sustains you.”
Employees who are part of a multi-employer health plan, or are part of a collective bargaining uni, or those who are self-employed are excluded from the bill.
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Lamont, Looney, and Kushner. It sounds like a law firm gone wrong, and they have. I am not a small business owner here in CT, but I try to use those businesses over larger ones, and I know the owners of the businesses that will be affected. This is another trick of the Democrats to make a change in an election year, for votes, and I’m sick of it. As more Connecticut businesses and our economy is worse, this is just one more pandering blow.