Nebraska Initiative 436, Paid Sick Leave Initiative (2024)

Nebraska Initiative 436
Election date November 5, 2024
Topic Labor and unions
Status a Approved
Type State statute	Origin Citizens

Nebraska Initiative 436, the Paid Sick Leave Initiative, was on the ballot in Nebraska as an initiated state statute on November 5, 2024. The ballot measure was approved.

A "yes" vote supported requiring Nebraska businesses to offer earned paid sick leave for employees—up to seven days for businesses of at least 20 employees and five days for fewer than 20 employees.

A "no" vote opposed requiring Nebraska businesses to offer earned paid sick leave for employees—up to seven days for businesses of at least 20 employees and five days for fewer than 20 employees.

Election results

See also: Results for minimum wage and labor-related ballot measures, 2024

Nebraska Initiative 436
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		662,348	74.56%
No		225,974	25.44%

Precincts reporting: 99%
Election results are unofficial until certified. These results were last updated on November 27, 2024 at 1:54:44 PM Eastern Time.

Overview

What did the initiative do?

See also: Measure design

The initiative required employers to provide eligible employees with earned paid sick time for personal or family health needs. An eligible employee was defined as any individual employed by an employer in the state, excluding individuals who worked fewer than 80 hours in a calendar year. Employers with fewer than 20 employees were required to provide 40 hours of paid sick time per year, while employers with 20 or more employees had to provide 56 hours. The accrual rate for employees was set at one hour of paid sick time for every thirty hours worked unless the employer established a higher limit. Accrual was set to begin at the commencement of employment or on October 1, 2025, whichever was later.

Who supported and opposed this initiative?

See also: Support and Opposition

Paid Sick Leave for Nebraskans led the campaign in support of the initiative. The committee reported $3.2 million in contributions through October 21. The campaign has received endorsements from Nebraska AFL-CIO, ACLU of Nebraska, Nebraska Appleseed, Nebraska Civic Engagement Table, and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska. On its campaign website, Paid Sick Leave for Nebraskans said, "Working families are the engine that drives our economy. Paid sick leave helps hardworking Nebraskans and businesses and means people won’t have to choose between the paycheck they need and their family’s health."

Ballotpedia did not locate a campaign in opposition to the ballot measure.

Did other states require employers to provide paid sick leave?

See also: States with earned leave time

As of September 2024, 17 states and Washington, D.C. have enacted laws requiring employers to provide earned leave time. The amount of time and how it applies to different sizes of employers varies by state. In Connecticut, the earned paid sick time law only applies to service workers. In Maine, the law provides general earned leave, not just earned sick time.

The 2021 Nebraska Benefits Report, which reported on benefits offered in 2020 in the state, found that 64.5% of responding business offered paid sick leave to some or all of their full-time employees and 22% of part-time employees.

Measure design

See also: Text of measure

The initiative required employers to provide eligible employees with earned paid sick time for personal or family health needs. An eligible employee was defined as any individual employed by an employer in the state, excluding individuals who worked fewer than 80 hours in a calendar year. Employers with fewer than 20 employees were required to provide 40 hours per year, and employers with 20 or more employees had to provide 56 hours. The accrual rate for employees was set at one hour of paid sick time for every thirty hours worked unless the employer established a higher limit. Accrual was set to begin at the commencement of employment or on October 1, 2025, whichever was later. Employers were authorized to provide all paid sick time that an employee was expected to accrue at the beginning of the year. The initiative also required accrued paid sick time to be carried over to the following year. If an employer already offered paid leave meeting the requirements of the initiative, the employer did not have to offer additional paid sick time.

Under the initiative, paid sick time could be used for:

• an employee's mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition;
• care for a family member with mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition;
• closure of the place of business or family member's school or place of care due to an official public health emergency; and
• the need to self-isolate or care for a family member due to the exposure to a communicable disease.

The Nebraska Department of Labor was responsible for implementing the initiative, and the Commissioner of Labor was responsible for issuing citations to employers for any violations of the act.

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title for Initiative 436 was as follows:

“

Shall a statute be enacted which: (1) provides eligible employees the right to earn paid sick time for personal or family health needs; (2) entitles employees of employers with fewer than 20 employees to accrue and use up to 40 hours of such time annually and those employed by employers with 20 or more employees to accrue and use up to 56 hours of such time annually; (3) specifies conditions regarding paid sick time; (4) prohibits retaliation against employees for exercising such rights; (5) adopts documentation requirements; and (6) establishes enforcement powers and a civil cause of action for violations? [ ] For [ ] Against

”

Ballot summary

The ballot summary for Initiative 436 was as follows:

“

A vote 'FOR' will enact a statute which: (1) provides eligible employees the right to earn paid sick time for personal or family health needs; (2) entitles employees of employers with fewer than 20 employees to accrue and use up to 40 hours of such time annually and those employed by employers with 20 or more employees to accrue and use up to 56 hours of such time annually; (3) specifies conditions regarding paid sick time; (4) prohibits retaliation against employees for exercising such rights; (5) adopts documentation requirements; and (6) establishes enforcement powers and a civil cause of action for violations. A vote 'AGAINST' means such a statute will not be enacted.

”

Object statement

The object statement on the circulating petition was:

“

The object of this petition is to enact a statute to provide eligible employees the right to earn paid sick time for personal or family health needs, to entitle those employed by employers with fewer than 20 employees to accrue and use up to 40 hours of earned paid sick time per year, to entitle those employed by employers with 20 or more employers to accrue and use up to 56 hours of earned paid sick time per year, to specify conditions for accruing and using earned paid sick time, to prohibit retaliation against an employee for exercising rights granted under the statute, to adopt certain notice and documentation requirements, and to establish enforcement powers and a civil cause of action for violations of the statute.

”

Readability score

See also: Ballot measure readability scores, 2024

Using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) and Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) formulas, Ballotpedia scored the readability of the ballot title and summary for this measure. Readability scores are designed to indicate the reading difficulty of text. The Flesch-Kincaid formulas account for the number of words, syllables, and sentences in a text; they do not account for the difficulty of the ideas in the text. The attorney general wrote the ballot language for this measure.

The FKGL for the ballot title is grade level 11, and the FRE is 42. The word count for the ballot title is 92.

The FKGL for the ballot summary is grade level 12, and the FRE is 43. The word count for the ballot summary is 103.

Support

Paid Sick Leave for Nebraskans led the campaign in support of the initiative. To view a full list of the businesses in Nebraska that support the initiative, click here.

Supporters

Unions

• Nebraska AFL-CIO

Organizations

• ACLU of Nebraska
• Nebraska Appleseed
• Nebraska Civic Engagement Table
• Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska
• Women’s Fund of Omaha

Arguments

• Paid Sick Leave for Nebraskans: "Working families are the engine that drives our economy. Paid sick leave helps hardworking Nebraskans and businesses and means people won’t have to choose between the paycheck they need and their family’s health."

Opposition

Ballotpedia did not locate a campaign in opposition to the ballot measure.

Arguments

You can share campaign information or arguments, along with source links for this information, at [email protected]

Campaign finance

See also: Campaign finance requirements for Nebraska ballot measures

The campaign finance information on this page reflects the most recent scheduled reports that Ballotpedia has processed, which covered through October 21, 2024. The deadline for the next scheduled reports was January 14, 2024.

One committee—Nebraskans for Paid Sick Leave—registered in support of the ballot measures.

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	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions	Cash Expenditures	Total Expenditures
Support	$2,525,909.87	$671,889.48	$3,197,799.35	$2,410,104.13	$3,081,993.61
Oppose	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00

Support

The following table includes contribution and expenditure totals for the committees in support of the measure.

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Committees in support of Initiative 436
Committee	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions	Cash Expenditures	Total Expenditures
Nebraskans for Paid Sick Leave	$2,525,909.87	$671,889.48	$3,197,799.35	$2,410,104.13	$3,081,993.61
Total	$2,525,909.87	$671,889.48	$3,197,799.35	$2,410,104.13	$3,081,993.61

Donors

The following were the top donors who contributed to the support committees.

Donor	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions
SixteenThirtyFund	$1,905,000.00	$11,252.10	$1,916,252.10
Nebraska Appleseed Action Fund	$0.00	$466,401.76	$466,401.76
Open Society Policy Center	$350,000.00	$0.00	$350,000.00
The Fairness Project	$300,000.00	$29,048.24	$329,048.24
Women's Fund of Omaha	$0.00	$30,320.05	$30,320.05

Methodology

To read Ballotpedia's methodology for covering ballot measure campaign finance information, click here.

Background

Paid sick leave offered by employees in Nebraska

The 2021 Nebraska Benefits Report, which reported on benefits offered in 2020, found that 64.5% of responding business offered paid sick leave to some or all of their full-time employees and 22% of part-time employees. The charts below shows the percentage of businesses that offered none to all of their employees paid sick leave benefits.

States with earned leave time

As of September 2024, 17 states and Washington, D.C. have enacted laws requiring employers to provide earned leave time. The amount of time and how it applies to different sizes of employers varies by state. In Connecticut, the earned paid sick time law only applies to service workers. In Maine, the law provides general earned leave, not just earned sick time. The map below highlights the states that require earned leave time.

Ballot measures related to earned sick leave in 2024

Voters in Alaska and Missouri also decided on ballot initiatives related to earned paid sick leave, as well as increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour. The Alaska initiative provides up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year if their employers have 15 employees or more and up to 40 hours of paid sick leave if their employers have fewer than 15 employees. The Missouri initiative requires businesses with 15 or fewer employees to provide at least five paid sick days per year, while those with more than 15 employees must offer at least seven paid sick days annually.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Nebraska

The state process

In Nebraska, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated state statute for the ballot is equal to 7 percent of registered voters as of the deadline for filing signatures. Because of the unique signature requirement based on registered voters, Nebraska is also the only state where petition sponsors cannot know the exact number of signatures required until they are submitted. Nebraska law also features a distribution requirement mandating that petitions contain signatures from 5 percent of the registered voters in each of two-fifths (38) of Nebraska's 93 counties.

Signatures must be submitted at least four months prior to the next general election. Signatures do not roll over; they become invalid after the next general election at least four months after the initial initiative application filing. Depending on when the initiative application is filed, petitioners can have up to just under two years to circulate petitions.

The requirements to get an initiated state statute certified for the 2024 ballot:

• Signatures: 86,426
• Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was July 3, 2024.

Signatures are submitted to the secretary of state. The secretary of state sends the appropriate signature petitions to each county, where county election officials verify the signatures. Upon receiving the signatures back from county officials, the secretary of state determines whether or not the requirements were met.

Details about this initiative

• The initiative was filed on June 22, 2023, by Sierra Edmisten, Jo Giles, and Craig Moody.
• On June 27, 2024, the campaign reported submitting over 138,000 signatures.
• On August 13, 2024, the secretary of state announced that the initiative qualified for the ballot.

Sponsors of the measure hired Landslide Political to collect signatures for the petition to qualify this measure for the ballot. A total of $1,853,941.10 was spent to collect the 86,426 valid signatures required to put this measure before voters, resulting in a total cost per required signature (CPRS) of $21.45.

How to cast a vote

See also: Voting in Nebraska

Click "Show" to learn more about current voter registration rules, identification requirements, and poll times in Nebraska.

How to cast a vote in Nebraska

Poll times In Nebraska, all polling locations are open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Central Time and 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time. An individual who is in line at the time polls close must be allowed to vote. Nebraska is divided between Central and Mountain time zones. Registration Check your voter registration status here. To register to vote in Nebraska, each applicant must be a citizen of the United States, a resident of the Nebraska county in which they are registering, and at least 18 years old by the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Citizens are eligible to register to vote on January 1 of the year they will turn 18 before the November general election. People convicted of a felony are ineligible to register to vote until two years after the terms of their sentence have been completed, and individuals who have been declared mentally incompetent by a court are ineligible to register to vote. A voter registration application can be completed in person at the county clerk or election commissioner's office, the Department of Motor Vehicles, or other state agencies. In-person registration must be completed by the third Friday preceding the election if completed at the DMV or other state agencies. In-person registration at county election offices must be completed by 6 p.m. on the second Friday before the election. Applications returned by mail must be postmarked by the third Friday before the election. Online applications must be submitted by midnight on the third Friday before the election. Automatic registration Nebraska does not practice automatic voter registration. Online registration See also: Online voter registration Nebraska has implemented an online voter registration system. Residents can register to vote by visiting this website. The Nebraska State Senate enacted legislation allowing online voter registration in 2014, and the system was implemented in 2015. Same-day registration Nebraska does not allow same-day voter registration. Residency requirements In Nebraska, citizens can register to vote the day they become residents of the state. Verification of citizenship See also: Laws permitting noncitizens to vote in the United States Nebraska does not require proof of citizenship for voter registration. An individual must attest that they are a U.S. citizen when registering to vote. According to the state's voter registration application, "any registrant who signs this application knowing that any of the information in the application is false shall be guilty of a Class IV felony under section 32-1502 of the statutes of Nebraska. The penalty for a Class IV felony is up to two years imprisonment and twelve months post-release supervision, a fine of up to $10,000.00, or both." All 49 states with voter registration systems require applicants to declare that they are U.S. citizens in order to register to vote in state and federal elections, under penalty of perjury or other punishment. As of November 2024, five states — Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, and New Hampshire — had passed laws requiring verification of citizenship at the time of voter registration. However, only two of those states' laws were in effect, in Arizona and New Hampshire. In three states — California, Maryland, and Vermont — at least one local jurisdiction allowed noncitizens to vote in some local elections as of November 2024. Noncitizens registering to vote in those elections must complete a voter registration application provided by the local jurisdiction and are not eligible to register as state or federal voters. Verifying your registration The Voter View site, run by the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office, allows residents to check their voter registration status online. Voter ID requirements Nebraska requires voters to present identification while voting. Initiative 432, approved by Nebraska voters in November 2022, amended Article I of the state constitution to require voters to present valid photo identification in order to vote. Governor Jim Pillen (R) signed Legislative Bill 514 into law on June 1, 2023, in order to implement this policy change. Due to this legislation, Nebraska's voter ID requirement went into effect on April 1, 2024, in time for the state's 2024 primary.

See also

2024 measures

• 2024 ballot measures
• Labor and unions on the ballot
• 2024 petition deadlines

Nebraska

• Nebraska ballot measures
• Nebraska initiative laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls
• Ballot measure signature costs

External links

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