Nebraska — Leave Laws

Nebraska requires private employers with eleven or more employees to provide paid sick time under the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act. The requirement took effect October 1, 2025. Covered employees accrue one hour of paid sick time for every thirty hours worked after completing eighty hours of employment. Employers with fewer than eleven employees are exempt. The Act does not apply to the United States, the State of Nebraska, or its agencies, departments, or political subdivisions.

Source: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3802; Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3803

Employees may use accrued paid sick time for the employee's own mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; the employee's need for medical diagnosis, care, treatment, or preventive medical care; care of a family member with a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition, or for medical diagnosis, care, treatment, or preventive medical care of a family member; closure of the employee's place of business or a child's school or place of care by order of a public official due to a public health emergency; or when the employee or a family member has been excluded from the workplace, school, or place of care by order of a public health emergency.

Source: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3804; NDOL Paid Sick Time Notice

Under the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, employees accrue one hour of paid sick time for every thirty hours worked, beginning after they complete eighty hours of consecutive employment. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3803(1). The statute imposes both accrual caps and annual usage caps, and the two operate differently.

Accrual caps — employer-size dependent

Small businesses (eleven to nineteen employees) may cap accrual at forty hours of paid sick time per year. Employers with twenty or more employees may cap accrual at fifty-six hours per year. Unless the employer selects a higher limit, employees are not entitled to earn more than these amounts in a year. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3803(1)(a)–(b).

Exempt employees — deemed accrual

Employees who are exempt from overtime under 29 U.S.C. § 213(a)(1) or § 213(b)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act are presumed to work forty hours in each workweek for paid sick time accrual purposes, unless their typical workweek is less than forty hours, in which case accrual is based on the typical workweek. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3803(2).

Mandatory carryover with no ceiling

Accrued paid sick time must be carried over to the following year. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3803(5). The statute does not impose a maximum carryover limit — an employee who does not use all forty or fifty-six hours in year one carries the unused balance into year two and continues accruing additional time (up to the annual accrual cap) in year two. The Nebraska Department of Labor has confirmed there is no maximum carryover.

Annual usage cap despite unlimited carryover

Although carryover is unlimited, employers may enforce an annual usage cap. Small businesses (eleven to nineteen employees) are not required to permit an employee to use more than forty hours of paid sick time per year; other employers (twenty or more employees) are not required to permit use of more than fifty-six hours per year. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3803(5). An employee who carries over thirty unused hours from year one and accrues forty hours in year two (total seventy hours available) may still be limited to using forty hours in year two if the employer is a small business.

Payout alternative to carryover

In lieu of carryover, an employer may pay the employee for unused accrued paid sick time at the end of the year and provide the employee with an amount of paid sick time that meets or exceeds the statutory minimum (forty or fifty-six hours, depending on employer size), available for the employee's immediate use at the beginning of the subsequent year. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3803(6). This frontloading alternative allows employers to avoid tracking unlimited carryover balances, provided the employee starts each year with the full statutory entitlement.

PTO policies that meet or exceed the Act

An employer with a paid leave policy (such as a combined PTO policy) that makes available an amount of paid leave equal to or exceeding the Act's requirements and that may be used as paid sick time in accordance with Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3804 is not required to provide additional paid sick time and is not obligated to allow accrual or carryover beyond the employer's existing paid leave policy. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3803(7). This safe harbor applies only if the PTO bank equals or exceeds the statutory accrual and can be used for the Act's permitted purposes.

Source: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3803 Source: Nebraska DOL Paid Sick Time FAQs