Rosa Pinto, community organizer for Heartland Workers Center, speaks during a news conference for supporters of paid sick leave for Nebraska workers Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Lincoln. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
LINCOLN — Nebraska voters will decide this fall whether workers will be able to rely on their employers to provide paid sick time.
Secretary of State Bob Evnen confirmed Tuesday that the Paid Sick Leave for Nebraskans petition collected enough signatures from registered voters to qualify for the November ballot.
Organizers from local nonprofits, worker advocacy, civil rights organizations and political groups announced in June they had turned in 138,000 signatures in support of the ballot measure.
First of several potential initiatives on ballot
Election officials stopped counting after verifying 97,557 signatures. That’s 11,000 more than the 86,500 needed for the 7% threshold statewide to change state law.
Nebraska also requires that its petition gatherers collect valid signatures from 5% of registered voters in at least 38 of the state’s 93 counties. The effort hit 5% or more in 47 counties, according to a release from the Secretary of State’s Office.
Sick leave is the first of several petitions expected to qualify for what could be a crowded fall ballot.
County and state election officials are still reviewing signatures on other issues, including petitions on abortion rights, abortion restrictions, medical marijuana and the future of the state’s new voucher program for private K-12 schools.
The state has until Sept. 13 to certify the ballot.
What the measure would do
If voters pass the sick leave measure, businesses with 20 or fewer employees would be required to fund at least five paid sick days a year for full-time employees. Larger businesses would be required to fund at least seven sick days per year per full-time employee.
Full- and part-time employees would earn an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Workers would be able to use the time for personal and family illnesses.
Supporters, including some small business owners, have testified that factory, farm and service workers would benefit the most from the change. Some said they lost jobs when their kids got sick.
Morgan Spiehs, a local worker and advocate for the petition drive, said in a statement that she lived with “a lot more stress and fear” as a preschool teacher with no sick leave.
“When I felt unwell, I scrutinized my symptoms every hour, wondering how quickly I could return to work so I could stop losing money,” she said.
Critics of the proposal have said it unnecessarily complicates an issue where responsible businesses can compete by offering benefits when they can’t compete as easily on pay.
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