Paid sick leave proposal passes in Nebraska

CNA Staff, Nov 6, 2024 / 13:15 pm

Voters in Nebraska approved a measure Tuesday to require all Nebraska businesses to offer their employees one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, a new policy that will go into effect on Oct. 1, 2025.

“Paid Sick Leave for Nebraskans,” Initiative 436, qualified for the ballot in mid-August after a robust signature campaign, which was funded in large part by a national progressive group. The measure passed overwhelmingly, with roughly 75% voting in favor. 

The measure mandates that employers offer up to five days (40 hours) of paid sick leave per year for businesses with fewer than 20 employees, or seven days (56 hours) for businesses with 20 or more employees.

The measure’s passage comes after several paid sick leave proposals repeatedly failed in the Nebraska Legislature. As of 2023, 15 states and the District of Columbia offer some amount of paid sick leave, according to the health policy group KFF. 

The Nebraska Catholic Conference, which advocates for policy on behalf of the state’s bishops, had encouraged Catholics to give the proposal their attention and consideration. 

“We encourage all Catholics to strongly review the paid sick leave ballot proposal. Catholic social teaching places a strong emphasis on human dignity, the good of the family, and the dignity of work,” Tom Venzor, executive director of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, said in a statement to CNA.

“It’s important that Catholics properly form their conscience on these matters and exercise their right to vote in a way that upholds the common good.”

The policy of paid sick leave isn’t specifically mentioned in the Church’s teachings. However, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, a 2004 document that compiles the Church’s various teachings on labor, devotes an entire section to “rest from work,” which mainly pertains to the importance of employers giving workers the opportunity to observe the Sabbath rest. 

“Rest from work is a right. … As God ‘rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had done’ (Gen 2:2), so too men and women, created in his image, are to enjoy sufficient rest and free time that will allow them to tend to their family, cultural, social, and religious life,” the document says.

“Public authorities have the duty to ensure that, for reasons of economic productivity, citizens are not denied time for rest and divine worship. Employers have an analogous obligation regarding their employees.”

On Election Day, Nebraska voters also approved medical marijuana and rejected a measure that would have expanded abortion, instead approving one that restricts abortion after roughly 12 weeks of pregnancy. 

The “Protect Women and Children” amendment, Initiative 434, will amend the state constitution to outlaw abortion “in the second and third trimesters” except in cases of medical emergencies or when the baby is the result of rape or incest. The measure passed roughly 55-45. 

Meanwhile, voters rejected a pro-abortion ballot measure, Initiative 439, which would have enshrined in the state constitution the “right” to have an abortion until the point of viability or later to protect the health of the pregnant woman.