Connecticut Paid Sick Leave Changes Begin in January

Connecticut’s paid sick leave law and requirements for businesses and employers, including home care agencies will expand in several ways beginning Jan. 1, 2025.

Public Act 24-8 expands the law to cover nearly all private sector employees and employers with at least 25 employees beginning next month, those with at least 11 employees in 2026, and then those with at least one employee in 2027 (seasonal employees and certain union construction workers and their employers are exempt); broadens the range of family members for whom an employee may use the leave; increases the rate at which employees accrue leave and changes the waiting period before they may use it; and broadens the reasons employees may use the leave to include events like closures due to a public health emergency and quarantines.

The new law prohibits employers from requiring their employees to provide documentation to support their reasons for taking leave. It also removes provisions from prior law that generally allowed employers to require employees to give them advance notice about a foreseeable leave.

Additionally, it expands employer notice requirements by requiring employers to give written notice to each employee about the paid sick leave law.

Employer recordkeeping requirements include employee “pay stubs” for accrued paid sick time and use for the calendar year and maintenance of paid sick leave records for three years.

A related new law, Public Act 24-147, exempts violations of the state’s paid sick leave law from an additional $300 civil penalty, leaving them subject only to the penalties set in the paid sick leave law (i.e., generally, up to $100 per violation but $500 for certain prohibited retaliatory personnel actions, in addition to specified other relief that the Department of Labor may order).

For additional information about paid sick leave, see the CT Department of Labor homepage, which includes Frequently Asked Questions and the presentation, Connecticut's New Paid Sick Leave Law: Everything CT Businesses Need to Know.
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