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paying The price daily shift is longer than eight hours, several cities have put in their own
Just how to pay employees for the paid sick leave requirement applies policies, he said.
their sick leave can be a sticky ques- to a typical day’s work, whatever the “As these requirements are
tion. If employees are paid hourly, the hours are, Jones said. So an employee mushrooming throughout the country,
calculation is straightforward. But for who works 12-hour shifts would be they’re not all the same as to when
employees who are paid by piece-rate, able to take 36 hours of leave rather the sick leave requirement kicks in,
commission, or using two or more than 24. and they’re not all the same on the
hourly rates, there are two ways to There are significant penalties for amount of benefits required,” Sharma
calculate the hourly rate for sick leave: companies that don’t comply with the said. “When they differ, it becomes
the workweek method and the 90-day law. The company could be ordered difficult for carriers operating on an
method. Under the workweek method, to pay the employee three times the interstate basis to comply with all these
the rate of pay used for sick leave is the dollar amount not paid, up to $4,000 different requirements. At some point
total amount of pay earned during the per employee, plus an administrative there’s going to be argument that these
workweek divided by the total num- penalty of between $50 and $4,000 requirements create a patchwork that
ber of hours worked that week. Under per day. Companies are also subject should be pre-empted by federal law.”
the 90-day method, the rate would be to other civil penalties, the Labor Some city ordinances do have
the average of all the employee’s non- Commissioner’s attorney’s fees, costs exceptions for people who are just
overtime pay during the previous 90 and interest. making deliveries, he said, but it’s still
days, divided by the total hours worked challenging.
in that period. paTchwOrk requireMenTs “The trucking industry does to a
“A lot of existing plans won’t meet Even trucking companies that large extent provide paid sick leave,”
the qualifications of the California law won’t have to deal with this particular Sharma said. “But the problem with this
because the law makes changes on how law in California should be paying patchwork of different requirements is
you have to pay an employee” for sick attention, Sharma said. California is that it makes conducting efficient oper-
time, Jones said. not the first state to set its own rules ations more difficult.” ATR
And for employees whose typically for employee wages and benefits, and

Trucking

The facts tell the story

 83,000 jobs in Arkansas — 1 in every 11
working people.

 $3.5 billion in wages annually —
wages that support Arkansas families.

 $448 million to Arkansas in fuel taxes
alone — funding to maintain our highways
and bridges, our critical infrastructure.

The Arkansas trucking industry’s impact is felt
everywhere. A strong trucking industry is a
stronger, more competitive Arkansas.

arkansastrucking.com

Source: American Transportation Research Institute

arkansas Trucking repOrT | issue 4 2015 27