Office of
Human Resources

Michigan Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA)

On February 21, 2025, the State of Michigan’s Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA) went into effect.  This act provides guaranteed paid sick time to all employees, including non-benefited employees (e.g. adjuncts, under half-time, and student employees).  This law contains regulations that required changes to our current paid leave policies affecting all employees, including our sick leave, paid leave (for hourly and salaried employees), and Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) policies.  

Please note:

  • If an exempt employee (salaried faculty, administrators, staff, and adjuncts/contracts) has sick leave that needs to be reported since February 21, please hold off on submitting your February or March leave reports until notified to do so. The employee and supervisor deadlines will be extended for the month of February.
  • If an hourly employee has sick leave to be reported since February 21, this should have been reported already on the timesheet. Please work with your supervisor if you have any questions.

A summary of the changes are as follows:

  1. All employees (both benefited and non-benefited) will have paid sick leave
    1. Non-benefit eligible employees will accrue 1 hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked
    2. Benefit eligible employees will accrue 1.154 hours of sick time for every 30 hours worked (up to 10 days/80 hours annually when working 40 hrs/week).
  2. Hourly Leave
    1. Leave Banks
      1. Hourly employee’s paid leave bank has consisted of the following accruals: 6 days of short-term sick time, 10 days of holidays, 10-20 days (2-4 weeks) of vacation. This will now be split into three separate banks: sick time, holiday time, and paid-leave (vacation/personal) time.
      2. The current balance in an employee’s paid-leave bank will not be adjusted and remain available for vacation/personal paid time off.
      3. A new holiday pay bank will ensure that all benefit eligible employees receive paid holidays–more detailed information will follow next week.
      4. Sick Leave: a short-term/ESTA compliant sick bank, accruing based on the rate mentioned in 1b above (mimicking the previous short-term plus long-term sick annual hours accrued mentioned in 2ai above), with a max rollover cap of 80 hours.
      5. Extended sick leave bank (replaces the long-term sick bank): available when an extended medical leave event occurs (employee/immediate family member), loaded with the appropriate hours needed for the medical event period, in coordination with any applicable short-term disability benefits, subject to submission and approval of appropriate documentation.
    2. Leave Year
      1. The current leave year cycle (July-June) will now change to September-August; this will align all of our leave years and allow employees to take full advantage of their accrued vacation during the summer.
      2. The new paid-leave bank (vacation/personal time) will accrue 10-20 days based on the years of service and will now be limited to a new 10-day maximum rollover. Recognizing that this is a change for hourly employees, as part of the transition hourly employees will have until August 30, 2026 to utilize their paid-leave bank before any rollover cap is applied. 
  3. Salaried Leave
    1. The Extended Sick Leave policy is being replaced by the new sick and extended sick leave banks, and applies to all salaried Administrative, Faculty, and Staff employees.
    2. Sick leave bank: short-term/ESTA compliant sick bank, accruing biweekly at the rate mentioned in 1b above, with a max rollover cap of 80 hours.
    3. Extended sick leave bank: available when an extended medical leave event occurs (employee/immediate family member), loaded with the appropriate hours needed for the period of the medical event, in coordination with any applicable short-term disability benefits, subject to submission and approval of appropriate documentation.
    4. All sick leave hours taken will need to be reported on a monthly leave report; salaried staff will combine this with their vacation reporting. Both sick leave and vacation usage (where applicable) will now be reported in 1 hour increments. Leave reports must be submitted monthly, regardless of usage/non-usage.
  4. Non-Benefit Eligible Exempt employees (including adjuncts) Sick Leave
    1. Sick time will be accrued into an ESTA leave bank on a per pay period basis. There is a rollover cap of 72 hours on this bank.
    2. Sick leave hours taken will need to be reported on a monthly leave report in 1 hour increments. Leave reports must be submitted monthly, regardless of usage/non-usage.
  5. Non-Benefit Eligible Hourly employees (including student employees) Sick Leave
    1. Sick time will be accrued into an ESTA leave bank on a per pay period basis. There is a rollover cap of 72 hours on this bank.
    2. Sick leave hours taken will need to be reported bi-weekly on the employee’s timesheet.


 

 

Office of Human Resources