A Voter-Made Law, Reshaped Before Launch

In November 2024, Nebraska voters approved Initiative 436, creating the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act — the state’s first paid sick time mandate. Before it ever took effect, the legislature amended it substantially (LB 415, signed in June 2025), narrowing who’s covered and how it’s enforced. The result took effect October 1, 2025, and after two 2026 bills to change it again both died in the legislature, the law as it stands today is the law employers should build around.

If you have employees in Nebraska — including remote or traveling staff who put in meaningful hours there — here’s what it requires.

Who’s Covered

  • The law applies to employers with 11 or more employees. Businesses with 10 or fewer are exempt entirely — an exemption the legislature added before launch.
  • An “employee” is anyone who works at least 80 hours in Nebraska in a calendar year — full-time, part-time, and temporary workers all count.
  • Excluded: independent contractors, individual owner-operators, seasonal and temporary agricultural workers, workers under 16, and railroad employees covered by federal law. Government employers are also outside the Act.

How Much Sick Time, and How It Accrues

  • Employees accrue 1 hour of paid sick time per 30 hours worked, beginning after an 80-hour waiting period of consecutive employment.
  • Annual caps depend on size: 40 hours per year for employers with 11–19 employees, 56 hours per year at 20 or more.
  • Unused time carries over year to year (use stays capped at 40/56 hours annually) — or employers may instead pay out unused time at year end and frontload the new year’s full allotment.
  • Sick time is paid at the employee’s normal rate, with the same benefits.

Already offer PTO? An existing policy can satisfy the Act — but only if it provides at least as much time, usable for the same purposes, under conditions no stricter than the law’s. Most policies need at least an audit, and many need amendments.

What the Leave Covers

Paid sick time may be used for the employee’s own illness, injury, diagnosis, treatment, or preventive care; to care for a family member (defined broadly, including “the equivalent of a family relationship”); for school meetings about a child’s health condition; and for closures or self-isolation during a public health emergency. Documentation may only be required for absences longer than 3 consecutive workdays — and an employee’s own written statement can suffice if a provider isn’t available.

One notable gap versus other states: Nebraska’s law has no domestic-violence “safe time” category — it is strictly a health-and-care mandate.

Employer To-Dos

  • Written notice to every employee (new hires at commencement of employment)
  • The state poster displayed at each location — electronic posting is allowed for remote workforces
  • Every regular paycheck (or an accessible online system) must show sick time available, taken year-to-date, and paid
  • A written policy with a reasonable notice procedure if you want to require advance notice — without one, you cannot deny sick time for lack of notice
  • Health information gathered around sick leave must be kept confidential and separate from personnel files
  • Rehires within 12 months get unused, un-paid-out sick time restored

One drafting trap worth flagging: statutory sick time doesn’t have to be paid out at separation — but if you fold it into a combined PTO bank, unused PTO may still be payable under Nebraska’s wage payment laws. How you structure the policy matters.

Enforcement: Administrative, Not Courtroom

The legislature’s amendments made Nebraska’s enforcement model unusually employer-manageable — but not toothless. The Nebraska Department of Labor enforces by citation: up to $500 for a first violation and up to $5,000 for each subsequent one, and unpaid citations can bar you from state and local government contracts. Employees no longer have a private right to sue under the Act — a change the 2026 legislature considered reversing and did not — so NDOL complaints are the enforcement path. Retaliating against employees for using sick time remains prohibited.

The 2026 Status Check

Employers watching for changes can stand down for now: a 2026 employer-side cleanup bill was indefinitely postponed in April, and an effort to restore employee lawsuits stalled. There are no formal regulations — the NDOL’s guidance document and FAQs (last revised October 2025) are the operative playbook alongside the statute.

Staying Compliant: The Technology Advantage

Nebraska’s law is built on exactly the things timekeeping systems are good at: hours-worked accrual (1-per-30 after an 80-hour trigger), two size-based caps, carryover, and a per-paycheck balance disclosure requirement. Tracking that by spreadsheet across part-timers and temps is how violations happen. CTR/NY’s time and attendance solutions accrue sick time automatically against actual hours worked, enforce waiting periods and caps by rule, and put balances on employee self-service — so the paycheck disclosure and the audit trail take care of themselves.

This article is general information, not legal advice — leave laws change and apply differently to specific situations. Questions about compliance in your specific situation? Contact CTR/NY for a consultation with our team.