San Antonio City Council approved a Paid Sick Leave Ordinance on Thursday, August 16, 2018, which allows workers to accrue up to 64 hours of paid sick leave each year. This law largely tracks the recent Austin sick pay ordinance, passed in February 2018. The highlights of the San Antonio legislation are:
- Most employers will have to comply with the Ordinance beginning August 1, 2019. Employers with five employees or fewer do not need to comply until August 2021.
- Employers who already provide more generous sick leave policies than those proscribed by the ordinance are not required to make any changes.
- The law only applies to persons who work within the city limits of San Antonio for at least 80 hours per calendar year.
The ordinance was passed outright after supporters gathered more than 144,000 signatures, which would have been enough to force an election by popular vote. Notwithstanding the recent passage of the ordinance in San Antonio, a state appellate court blocked the Austin ordinance from taking effect on Friday, August 17. The appeal was from a trial court decision in Austin which had allowed the ordinance to take effect. It is expected that a similar lawsuit to block the San Antonio ordinance will also be filed. State lawmakers have also promised to pass legislation in the 2019 session that would declare such statutes invalid and preempted by state law. This will be an important test of separation of powers between the more conservative state government and more liberal cities like Austin.