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Previous Updates
Healthy Families and Workplace Act
As noted in last month’s FranklyHR, starting October 1, 2025, most Nebraska employers must allow employees who have worked at least eighty hours to start earning paid sick time at a rate of one hour for every thirty hours worked. Employers with less than eleven employees are exempt from the law.
Employers with an existing paid leave policy need not provide additional paid leave if the policy provides an amount of leave equal to or greater than that required by the law, and which can be used as paid sick time.
You can learn more with these FAQs.
Healthy Families and Workplace Act
Last year, Nebraska voters approved Nebraska Initiative 436 (Healthy Families and Workplace Act) which requires most employers to begin providing earned paid sick time (PST) to most Nebraska employees on October 1, 2025. In May, the Nebraska legislature clarified and amended the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplace Act (NHFWA) and the Governor later signed the bill this summer.
Starting October 1, 2025, most Nebraska employers must allow employees who have worked at least eighty hours to start earning paid sick time at a rate of one hour for every thirty hours worked. Employers with less than eleven employees are exempt from the law. Employers with eleven to nineteen employees can cap accrual and use at forty hours per year. Employers with twenty or more employees can cap accrual and use at fifty-six hours per year. Employers are not required to pay out unused sick time upon an employee’s separation of employment. To determine business size (multi-state employers), the law only includes individuals that worked at least 80 hours in the state of Nebraska in a calendar year.
Employers with an existing paid leave policy need not provide additional paid leave under the NHFWA if the policy provides an amount of leave equal to or greater than that required by the law, and which can be used as paid sick time.
Employers can count paid leave that was provided to employees between January 1, 2025, and September 30, 2025, toward their annual obligation for paid sick time in 2025 if the paid time off was available for use as paid sick time as provided by the NHFWA.
Covered employers must give written notice to employees by September 15, 2025, or when employment begins, whichever is later. Notice
Employers must also display a poster in the workplace. Poster
You can learn more with these FAQs.
Child Labor Employment Certificate Amendments
Effective July 21, 2022, Nebraska's child labor employment certificate law is amended to provide that:
- Employers only have to keep a single list of all minors employed in each building on file and no longer have to post a second list near the principal entrance of the building; and
- Employment certificates may be approved only by the principal of the school the minor attends rather than the superintendent of the school district in which the minor resides.
Hairstyle Discrimination Ban
Effective September 11, 2021, Nebraska's Fair Employment Practices Act is amended to prohibit discrimination on the basis of characteristics associated with race, including skin color, hair texture and protective hairstyles. Protective hairstyles include braids, locks and twists.
The amended law includes exemptions for certain bona fide health and safety standards, law enforcement agencies and the Nebraska National Guard.
