A major change to the state-mandated sick leave policy resulting from legislation passed in 2020 is now in effect, according to an announcement from the state Department of Labor and Employment.

Senate Bill 20-205, known as the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, went into effect on Jan. 1 and mandates every employer provide employees with paid sick leave, with a couple of caveats.

The bill required two types of leave: public health emergency leave and accrued leave. 

Most of the leave provisions have been in law for well over a year. The big change is that as of Jan. 1, employers with 15 or fewer employees must now provide accrued leave. Prior to 2022, small employers only had to provide emergency leave.

According to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, as of 2020, Colorado is home to 653,000 small businesses, about 99.5% of the total businesses in the state. Those businesses employ more than 1 million Coloradans. 

Leave must be paid at the same hourly rate or salary and with the same benefits the employee would earn if they were working, as well as being paid on the same schedule as regular wages, according to CDLE.

Under the legislation’s public health emergency leave provision, which applies to COVID, the employer must provide up to 80 hours of paid leave. That’s been in the law since July 14, 2020.

Emergency leave can be paid for illnesses with COVID symptoms, quarantining or isolating as a result of COVID exposure, COVID testing, vaccination and side effects, an inability to work due to health conditions that put the employee at a greater risk for COVID, and COVID-related family needs, such as illness or school closure.

In addition, employers cannot require documentation from the employee to show that the leave is for COVID-related purposes. 

The COVID leave is in effect so long as there is a declared federal or state public health emergency.

For accrued leave, the employee receives one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours per year. That’s been in effect for a year for employers with more than 15 employees.

If a company is operating under a collective bargaining agreement, CDLE said, and the agreement provides either equal or better paid leave, the company is exempt from the Health Families and Workplaces Act. 

The full list of conditions for which paid leave is applied is available here.