New York City Proposes Legislation Mandating Paid Personal Time
Earlier this month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a plan that would require companies in the city to offer their employees 10 paid vacation days each year. There are a number of important details that are important in regards to the recent proposal, some of which are:
- Only businesses with more than 5 employees will be affected.
- Employees must be with the company for at least 120 days before being eligible for the benefits.
- All New York employees are affected, regardless of the industry they work in.
If the proposal were to go through, these days would be added to the 5 days already allotted to employees due in part to Bill de Blasio’s 2014 legislation mandating employers offer their employees paid sick leave. If the legislation goes through, New York City would be joining the likes of countries like England, Germany, and Japan, who already have laws mandating paid vacation.
What this means for New York employers
While the proposal would mean a big win for employees in the state, it also means that employers are left with another set of regulations to follow. And if they don’t do their best to live up to the standards laid out in the legislation, they could be subject to major fines.
How to make sure you stay compliant
With this legislation looming over the heads of employers in New York, it’s important they begin taking steps to ensure they’re prepared to tackle the incoming requirements. One of the most effective ways of doing so is by making use of Deputy, an employee scheduling software platform specifically built from the ground up to adhere to compliance policies.
To further understand how Deputy can help employers live up to requirements revolving around paid personal time. Take a look at a handful of Deputy’s features below that will have you compliant with paid personal time quickly & easily.
1. Smart leave management system
Deputy’s smart leave management system is built to allow employees the ability to request time off themselves without the need of any supervisors or management. This way, employees aren’t forced to jump through a bunch of hoops whenever they need to use a personal day. Along with that, the system is built to give you clear, reliable availability as well as insights regarding leave balance so you can be assured no extra days are being taken that takes them over their maximum limit.
2. Meal & rest break compliance
If the paid personal time legislation ends up getting passed, it won’t be the only type of compliance that New York employers are subjected to. There are currently laws mandating both meal & rest breaks in the state and you’re responsible for making sure your employees don’t skip out on them. But you don’t have to freight, Deputy can also help you ensure these breaks are taken so you don’t end up with a number of fines.
Here are some of the features that work to ensure no one on your team misses their break:
- Multi-break scheduling
Schedule multiple breaks and break types in a single shift, including both meal (unpaid) and rest (paid) breaks with specific start and end times.
- On-site break management
Enhanced employee break management with customer break enforcement & attestation.
- Break tracking
All break details are captured in Deputy, providing an accessible, ongoing record. It also presents itself in a visual display that makes it easy to see any break overlaps or gaps so you can quickly & easily avoid them. This way, you’re sure you’re getting optimum coverage all throughout the day.
- Custom break enforcement
On-site break management and early clock-in prevention work to ensure employees only take breaks when eligible and don’t start a shift or return from a break early. This way you can focus on growing your business versus monitoring when your employees take their breaks.
3. Auto-Scheduling
Why stress yourself out each & every week creating employee schedules that live up to all of New York’s compliance standards when you can just set it on auto-pilot? With Deputy’s auto-scheduling feature, you’re able to create customized scheduling rules that let you set your own parameters in terms of compliance so the auto-scheduling feature can create optimized, legally compliant schedules each & every time.
Along with that, the auto-scheduling feature uses information based on past demand signals (sales, foot traffic, bookings, etc.) so it’s able to accurately forecast the number of employees you need working at all hours of the day. So not only is it able to help you stay up to date on your compliance issues, but it can also save you money in regards to your labor costs. And the best part is it allows you to create your employee schedules with a single click.
4. Go mobile
Everyone’s on the go nowadays, this includes your employees. So it only makes sense to use a software platform that’s optimized for mobile and allows you to configure everything you need to without having to log into a computer. Deputy allows you to quickly create, copy and publish schedules, along with managing shift swaps, and finding replacements from a number of different devices with our app that’s available for Android, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch.
5. Fatigue & overtime management
The main reason employees need to take personal time in the first place is because they’re too tired or burnt out from their jobs. Make sure this doesn’t happen in the first place by having procedures in place to ensure no one is regularly working themselves crazy.
With Deputy, you’re able to go into the system and set a direct limit on the maximum number of hours each day that your employees are allowed to work.
You only want your employees to work 8 hours a day? Put it in the system.
Only want your team to work a maximum of 40 hours a week? Put it in the system.
Want your part-time employees to only work 35 hours a week? Go ahead and put that information into the system.
Burnout is a big reason why many employees end up leaving their jobs, by implementing strategies to fight burnout among your employees, you’re setting your team, as well as your business, up for success.
Last thoughts
New York City is looking to become the first city in the country to mandate paid personal time. If this legislation passes, employers in the city will have to adjust their operations & procedures accordingly in order to ensure they aren’t met with hefty fines.
With the help of Deputy, employers can rest assured knowing they’re using a software platform built from the ground up specifically to adhere to compliance standards. To start a free trial (no credit card required!) of Deputy and to see why it’s the highest rated workforce management software on G2 Crowd, click on the button below to see it in action for yourself.
