Elizabeth, which is in Union County, joins Newark, Montclair, Bloomfield, East Orange and Irvington in Essex County, Jersey City in Hudson County, Passaic and Paterson in Passaic County and Trenton in Mercer County in entitling employees to paid sick leave time off from work.
The Elizabeth ordinance is similar to each of the other 9 ordinances. With some exceptions, they generally require employers with at least 10 employees to provide at least 80 hours of paid sick time per year. In contrast, employers with fewer than 10 employees are only required to provide employees 24 hours of paid sick leave each year.
Businesses in those towns are required to permit employees to use this paid time off for the employee’s own or their family member’s: (1) a mental or physical illness, injury or health condition; (2) medical diagnosis, care or treatment; or (3) preventative medical care. The laws define “family” fairly broadly to include a child, parent, spouse, civil union partner, domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild or sibling.
The ordinances also include provisions prohibiting employers from retaliating against employees who use their paid sick leave time or otherwise exercise their rights under the ordinances.
For additional information regarding the current municipal sick leave ordinances, please read our previous article: Growing Number of New Jersey Municipalities Require Paid Sick Leave.
In addition, you can learn more about your right to take paid or unpaid time off from work in New Jersey and New York on our website.