Page 46 - CCD-Mag-Summer-Fall-2020

Engineering Colorado
Look Ahead to 2021: Two New Employment Laws You Need to Know
by Calla Pott, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
Calla Pott, SPHR, SHRM-SCP | Owner,
Align by Design: Human Capital Consulting
Colorado issued several new laws in the last year that will impact employers with regards to required notices, job opening announcements and paid sick leave. Firms in the A/E/C industry need to look ahead and prepare for when they take effect in January 2021.
Equal Pay for Equal Work (SB 19-085) Overview
This law prohibits all employers from discriminating on the basis of sex for significantly similar work, regardless of the job title. There are exceptions to wage differentials if the employer can demonstrate the disparity is based on one or more of the factors below, is applied consistently and is not based on wage history:
• Seniority;
• Merit;
• Production quantity or quality;
• Geographic location where work is performed;
• Education, training, or experience if they reasonably
relate to the work in question;
• Travel, if it is a regular and necessary condition
of the work performed.
Employers are prohibited from inquiring about wage history of job applicants or making disclosure of wage history a condition of employment. Therefore, employers should remove wage rate history from their job applications
and train their managers not to ask this question during interviews. Instead, employers can share the starting wage or range and ask if the applicant is comfortable with this. In addition, employers will be required to keep records of job descriptions, wage rate history of each employee for the duration of employment plus two years after separation. Employers must also post promotional opportunities internally and include the wage or wage range.
Now is the time to create or review and update job descriptions for your organization, retrain managers on interview questions, develop wage ranges for job titles
or job groups and a process for publicizing internal promotional opportunities. It is also important to review
any wage differential systems for adverse impact, conduct a thorough wage audit and make a good faith effort to correct any wage disparities.
Healthy Families and Workplaces Act-HFWA (SB20-205) Overview
A significant portion of this law goes into effect January 1, 2021 for employers with 16 or more employees, then for all employers January 1, 2022 and requires one hour of paid
sick leave for every 30 hours worked up to 48 hours per
year and up to an additional 80 hours during public health emergencies. Employers with equivalent or greater paid sick leave plans including paid time off are not required to provide additional paid sick leave.
Employees may use paid sick leave for the following reasons:
• A mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; needs a medical diagnosis, care, or treatment related to such illness, injury, or condition; needs preventive medical care;
• To care for a family member who has a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition; needs a medical diagnosis, care, or treatment related to such illness, injury, or condition; or needs to obtain preventive medical care;
• The employee or a family member has been the victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault, or harassment and needs to be absent from work for purposes related to such crime; or
• A public official has ordered the closure of school or place of care of the employee's child or of the employee's place of business due to a public health emergency, thus requiring the employee to provide childcare.
The employee begins accruing paid sick leave when their employments starts and may use it as it is accrued. While
the employee can carryover unused paid sick leave, the employer can limit the use of paid sick leave to 48 hours
each year and earned but not used paid sick leave is not
paid out upon employment separation. Employers can also require documentation when the employee takes four or more consecutive paid sick days. Employers will also need to maintain records of hours worked, paid sick leave accrued and used, plus a poster must be displayed and a written notice must be given to employees.
NOTE about the author and the content therein: Align by Design:
Human Capital Consulting provides human resources, leadership and organizational development consulting and is not licensed to practice law. Discussions related to employment issues can have legal ramifications and should be interpreted as opinions or considerations. If legal advice is desired, organizations should contact an employment attorney.
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