Nebraska Sick Leave

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This guide provides essential information about Nebraska’s Healthy Families and Workplace Act (“Act”) and how it applies to your business. The Act applies to employers with 11 or more employees in Nebraska, including full-time, part-time, and temporary workers. 

Sick Time Requirements Based on Employer Size:

• Employers with 11 to 19 employees: Must provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year, but may cap usage at 40 hours per year.
• Employers with 20 or more employees: Must provide up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year, but may cap usage at  56 hours per year.

Employers have the following options for setting up their sick leave:

• Accrual with carryover: employees accrue sick leave at a minimum rate of 1 hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours per year (small employers) or 56 hours, and carryover of all unused hours into the next year;
• Accrual with no carryover and payout: employees accrue sick leave at a minimum rate of 1 hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours per year (small employers) or 56 hours (large employers), and payout all accrued and unused hours during the year and provide the full amount of sick leave based on employer size at the start of the year;
• Front load with no payout or carryover: provide employees 40 hours per year (small employers) or 56 hours at the beginning of the year (frontloaded) for immediate use.

There are other requirements under the state sick leave law, which you may read more about here. Some of these requirements are also detailed further below. Employers can also read up on general sick leave best practices here. 

Employee Eligibility & Use

All employees, with a few exceptions, who work 80 hours in Nebraska in a year are entitled to paid sick leave. Employees may use earned sick time for themselves or a family member for any of the following reasons:

• illness, injury, or health condition;
• treatment, diagnosis, or preventative medical care;
• meetings related to the employee’s child’s illness, injury, health condition at school or care provider;
• closure of the employee’s business or to care for a child due to closure of school or place of care by order of a public official due to a public health emergency;
• isolation due to a communicable disease as determined by a health authority or a health care professional.

You should review the law and resources at the bottom of this page to understand additional requirements under the Nebraska law, such as increments of use, how hours are determined for exempt and salaried employees, how pay is calculated, who is a “family member,” what type of notice and documentation an employer may require, pay statement requirements, and how sick time is handled upon termination of employment. 

Interaction with an Employer’s Existing Policies

An employer’s paid time off (PTO) plan or other type of paid leave (including sick or vacation time) can satisfy this law if, at a minimum, the plan meets the law’s requirements (e.g., accrual, carryover, and usage requirements of sick leave, etc.). Additionally, nothing prohibits an employer from providing more generous leave policies than the minimum required by the law.

Pay Statement Requirements

Employers are required to include the following additional information on a paystub, statement, or online system each pay period:

• the number of sick time hours accrued and available for use; and
• the number of sick time hours used in the pay period.

Notice Requirements

Employers must provide written notice to each employee at the time of hiring or by September 15, 2025, whichever is later, that includes, but is not limited to:

• Beginning October 1, 2025, employees are entitled to paid sick time;
• The amount of paid sick time that employees will earn;
• The protected reasons for which employees may use sick time per the Act;
• That retaliatory personnel action against employees who request or use paid sick time is prohibited;
• That each employee has the right to file a suit or complaint if paid sick time as required by the Act is denied by the employer or the employee is subjected to retaliatory personnel action for requesting or taking paid sick time; and
• The Nebraska Department of Labor’s contact information, where employees can inquire about rights and responsibilities under the Act.

Employers are required to conspicuously display a poster at their physical place of business, in a place that is accessible to employees, that contains the information listed above. If the employer does not maintain a physical worksite, they can provide notice to remote workers using electronic communication or a conspicuous posting in the web-based or app-based platform.

The written notice and the poster must be in English and any language that is the first language spoken by at least 5% of the employer’s workforce, as long as the Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) has translated the notice into such language. See the Posting Requirements section here.

If you set up a separate sick leave policy in Justworks as a PEO customer, we will automatically add this balance information to employees' paystubs, and it is available to your employees at any time when they log into the Justworks platform. 

Limitations on Paid Sick Leave

Employees start accruing sick leave on their first day of work and must be allowed to use earned sick time as it is accrued.

An employer is not required to pay out accrued, unused paid sick time when an employee separates from employment with the employer. 

Keep in mind that if a separated employee is rehired within 12 months of separation, the employer must reinstate any previously accrued but unused sick leave if it was not paid out on separation from employment for immediate use.

Resources & Notes

• Help Center: Sick and Safe Leave
• Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL): Healthy Families and Workplace Act
• Mineral: Nebraska Sick Leave*

*Be sure you’re logged into your Justworks account with administrative permissions to access Mineral.

Disclaimer

This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, legal or tax advice. If you have any legal or tax questions regarding this content or related issues, then you should consult with your professional legal or tax advisor.