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, effective October 1, 2025. However, the employer coverage test is not based solely on headcount in any given week—rather, a business is considered a covered "employer" only if it employs eleven or more employees for at least twenty calendar weeks during the current or immediately preceding calendar year. This 20‑week requirement applies regardless of whether the weeks are consecutive. Employers with fewer than eleven employees at all times, or who do not reach the 20‑week threshold, are exempt. The Act does not apply to the United States, the State of Nebraska, or its agencies, departments, or political subdivisions.

For clarity: The small business carveout defines a "small business" as an employer with fewer than 20 employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year. If an employer crosses the 11‑employee threshold but does not maintain that count for at least 20 calendar weeks, the paid sick time requirement does not apply for that employer year. The Nebraska Department of Labor confirms this rule and provides further examples in agency guidance.

Source: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3802(4), (10) Source: 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

Loss of employer coverage — threshold mechanics

The Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act defines a covered "employer" as any person or entity that employs eleven or more employees for each working day in each of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year. This is found in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3802(4), which does not distinguish between entering coverage (by crossing the threshold) and exiting coverage (by dropping below the threshold).

Statutory silence on post-threshold reduction

The statute does not contain explicit language on how or when an employer loses coverage after previously meeting the twenty-week, eleven-employee threshold. There is no reference in the Act to a grace period, automatic continuation, or retroactive loss of coverage following a reduction in workforce below the threshold. Nebraska Department of Labor guidance does not currently address this question as of June 2026.

Ongoing eligibility period is determined by any twenty qualifying weeks in the current or immediately preceding calendar year. If an employer’s headcount is below eleven in every week of the current and following year, it would no longer be a "covered employer" starting the next benefit year. If an employer’s staffing fluctuates above and below eleven employees throughout the year, it remains a covered employer until it has not employed eleven or more employees for at least twenty weeks in either the current or the prior calendar year.

The absence of any statutory language on how quickly or automatically coverage terminates means there is no requirement in primary law or by agency interpretation for immediate loss or continuation of paid sick time obligations solely when the employer dips below eleven employees. Employer status is determined by the twenty-week rule in § 48-3802; the law is silent otherwise.

Source: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3802

The Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (effective October 1, 2025) imposes both notice and workplace posting obligations on covered employers. These requirements are set out in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3806 and apply to any “employer” as defined under the Act (see guide section on employer coverage thresholds).

Workplace Posting Requirement: Every covered employer must display a workplace poster in a conspicuous and accessible location at each worksite where employees are employed. The required poster must inform employees of their rights to paid sick time, the amount of paid sick time available, the terms of use, the prohibition on retaliation or interference, and contact information for the Nebraska Department of Labor. If the employer’s workforce includes employees who speak a language other than English, and a substantial portion of the workforce communicates primarily in that language, the employer must display the posting in both English and the applicable language(s), as required by the Nebraska Department of Labor. The Department provides a model notice for this purpose.

Notice to Employees: Upon hire, and at any time when requested by an employee, employers must provide individual notice of employees’ rights under the Act. This includes information about:

• The right to accrue and use paid sick time;
• The amount of paid sick time available;
• Terms of paid sick time use;
• Anti-retaliation protections;
• The right to file a complaint with the Nebraska Department of Labor.

Employers may discharge this obligation by distributing the state’s model notice or by including the required information in employee handbooks or policy manuals distributed to all employees. The Department of Labor may issue additional regulations governing notice formats and languages.

Timing and Effective Date: The posting and notice requirements go into effect on October 1, 2025, alongside the substantive paid sick time provisions. There is no statutory grace period; compliance is required as of the effective date.

Source: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3806

Under the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, paid sick time must be compensated at the employee’s same hourly rate or equivalent base compensation. The statute expressly excludes overtime, holiday pay, tips, commissions, or bonuses from the calculation of paid sick time. Specifically, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3802(7) defines "paid sick time" to mean pay, at the employee’s same hourly rate or equivalent, for hours the employee would have worked, excluding those variable or premium pay categories.

Calculation for hourly, salary, and non-hourly employees

• Hourly employees are paid at their regular hourly rate for sick time used.
• Non-hourly or salary employees receive an equivalent amount based on their standard pay, with excluded components not added (statute is silent beyond the base formula).

Special rule for commission, piece-rate, and fee-for-service employees While the statute does not itself prescribe a method for averaging irregular earnings or for employees compensated on commission, mileage, piece rate, or fee-for-service, the Nebraska Department of Labor’s Paid Sick Time FAQs instruct that employers should use the formula in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-126: calculate the employee’s average weekly earnings for the prior six months and divide by 40 to determine an hourly rate. This method brings commission or piece-work employees' sick pay in line with the base-pay intent of the Act. Use of this guidance is current agency practice as of June 2024.

There is no provision allowing a rate lower than the ordinary hourly rate or salary, and no requirement to include the expressly excluded categories. Future regulatory action could change technical details, but as of June 2024, this guidance applies.

Source: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-3802(7) Source: Nebraska DOL Paid Sick Time FAQs