Nevada Enacts Bill Regarding Paid Personal Leave and Minimum Wage

Nevada has recently passed a personal leave law (SB312), which, valid from January 1, 2020, will require private employers with 50 or more employees in Nevada to give employees operating in the state with up to 40 hours of paid leave per year, to be used for any purpose, which includes non-medical personal reasons.

Requirement

The bill requires such an employer who has 50 or more employees in this State, at a minimum, to provide employees 0.01923 hours
(or approximately 1.15 minutes) of paid leave for each hour worked that may be used by an employee beginning on the 90th calendar day of employment. An employee may use paid leave available for use by that employee without providing a reason to his or her employer for such use.

Notice Requirement

An employee is required to give notice to his or her employer to use the paid leave available for use by that employee as soon as practicable.

Employer’s Rights

An employer may:

• Limit the use of the paid leave to 40 hours per benefit year;
• Limit the amount of paid leave that an employee may carry over to another benefit year to a maximum of 40 hours per benefit year; and
• Set a minimum increment that an employee may use the accrued leave at any one time, not to exceed 4 hours.

The law additionally requires an employer to maintain records of the receipt or accrual and use of paid leave for each employee for a
1 year period and to make those records available for inspection by the Labor Commissioner.

Carry – Over

Paid leave accrued may carry over for each employee between his or her benefit years of employment, except an employer, may limit the amount of paid leave for each employee carried over to a maximum of 40 hours per benefit year.

Payment for Leave

An employer shall:

• Compensate an employee for the paid leave available for use by that employee at the rate of pay at which the employee is compensated at the time such leave is taken, which is calculated by dividing the total wages of the employee paid for the immediately preceding 90 days by the number of hours worked during that period.
• Pay such compensation on the same payday as the hours taken are normally paid.

Exception

• This does not apply to employers who provide at least an equivalent amount of paid leave or paid time off that may be used for the same purposes and under the same conditions as required by this law; and
• This does not apply to temporary, seasonal and on-call employees.

Violation

Any person who is in violation of the provisions of this enacted leave law is guilty of a misdemeanor and authorizes the Commissioner to impose, in addition to any other remedy or penalty, an administrative penalty of not more than $5,000 for each
violation.

Minimum Wage Increase

Nevada also enacted AB 456, which will slowly increase the state minimum wage (currently $7.25 per hour for employers offering a qualified health plan, and $8.25 per hour for other employers) by 75 cents yearly over the next five years.  The first increase will happen on July 1, 2020.

The increases will culminate in July 2024 with an $11 per hour minimum wage for employers giving a qualified health plan, and a $12 per hour rate for all other employers.