The Office of Human Resources

Massachusetts Mandatory COVID-19 Emergency Sick Leave Mandatory Notice

Overview

The Massachusetts COVID-19 Emergency Paid Sick Leave law requires employers to provide up to one week of paid sick leave to employees who need leave for a covered COVID-19 related reason.

Employers may request reimbursement from the state for the cost of paid leave.

The maximum amount an employer is required to pay per employee, and the maximum amount for which the employer may seek reimbursement for any one employee, is $850 (including cost of benefits).

Effective Dates

May 28, 2021 through September 30, 2021 (or until the exhaustion of $75 M in program funds)

Reasons for Leave

Employees can take leave for the following reasons:

  • To take care of themselves or get medical treatment due to a COVID-19 diagnosis or symptoms, or to get or recover from a COVID-19 immunization
  • To quarantine as required by a local, state, or federal public official, a health authority having jurisdiction, or a health care provider

Employees can also take leave if they have to care for a family member in any of the above situations

  • Covered family members are an employee’s spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, grandchild, grandparent, or sibling, a parent of the employee’s spouse or domestic partner, or a person who stood in loco parentis to the employee when the employee was a minor child

*In general, employers may not require employees to use other types of available paid leave before they use COVID-19 Emergency Paid Sick Leave, or require employees to find someone else to cover the time they will miss while using COVID-19 Emergency Paid Sick Leave.

*Employers may not interfere with an employee’s ability to use COVID-19 Emergency Paid Sick Leave or retaliate against an employee for taking COVID-19 Emergency Paid Sick Leave.

How Much Leave Are Employees Entitled to?

  • 40 hours of leave for employees who regularly work at least 40 hours
  • For part-time employees, leave amount is based on average number of hours the employee works

Requests for Leave

Employers may require employees to submit COVID-19 Emergency Paid Sick Leave requests in writing and may require employees to provide medical and other documentation related to the request.

For additional information please visit the Employee Notice Regarding Massachusetts COVID-19 Emergency Paid Sick Leave.