How can employers offer competitive paid-leave packages while staying compliant with state laws? That was the topic of a recent SHRM webinar, “Navigating Paid Leave and Health Care Benefits: Solutions for Complex HR Challenges,” with James Reid, an attorney at Honigman in Ann Arbor, Mich., and Rue Dooley, SHRM-SCP, an HR Knowledge Advisor at SHRM.
“The biggest challenge my clients have, having state-mandated PTO policies, is that employees feel like they’re being punished or having perks taken away, partly because it’s confusing how the state laws [are written],” Reid said. “For example, if a company already gives 80 hours of vacation to an employee per year, but now that state requires 80 hours to be used” for leave other than vacation, “that employer may not want to offer an additional 80 hours,” which could cost millions of dollars.
To protect their finances, some employers are giving the 80 hours mandated by the state and telling employees that whatever is left may be used for vacation. This scenario could rub workers the wrong way. “Employees feel like they lost vacation, when in reality, a lot of companies were allowing employees to use that paid time off for vacation, personal, family, or otherwise,” Reid explained. Because state laws mean employers have to get more particular about notice periods, increments, doctors’ notes, and the like, it could be difficult to maintain the original 80-hour PTO bank without making adjustments.
“If you have an existing policy...
NEW HAVEN, Conn., June 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Wiggin and Dana is pleased to announce the launch of its new False Claims Act (FCA) Defense and Compliance Practice Group, created in response to a s...