May 2011
Labor & Employment Law Alert


Pamela Ploor

On May 5, 2011, Governor Scott Walker signed the bill preempting the Milwaukee Paid Sick Leave Ordinance. All employers with employees within the City of Milwaukee that were concerned about the Ordinance should breathe a big sigh of relief.

Under the Ordinance, all employers had to provide any person who is “employed within the geographic boundaries of the city” with one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, not to exceed 72 hours (or nine days) per calendar year. Employers with fewer than 10 employees must provide 40 hours (or five days) of paid sick leave per calendar year. The law was stopped from going into effect by a legal challenge by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. Our prior alert discussing the Ordinance, the legal challenge, and its status is available here: http://www.quarles.com/milwaukee_paid_sick_leave_ordinance_2011/.

The law signed by Governor Walker requires the Wisconsin Family and Medical Leave Act to be construed as an issue of statewide concern to ensure consistency throughout the state. The new law bars local governments (city, village, town or county) from enacting and administering a law requiring a private employer to provide paid or unpaid leave to employees for reasons that match those provided by the Ordinance. The law must be published within 10 working days and will go into effect the day after publication.

9to5 National Association of Working Women, which is the advocacy group that gathered the signatures to get the Ordinance on the ballot in Milwaukee and has been defending the Ordinance in court, criticized the preemption bill signed by Governor Walker. Employers will have to wait and see whether 9to5 will file any court action to bar the preemption law from going into effect and if it does, what impact, if any, the delay would have on the order by the Court of Appeals to the Circuit Court to lift the injunction on the Ordinance.

Absent a valid legal challenge, Milwaukee employers do not need to take any action to comply with the Ordinance, which the preemption law bars. 

If you have any questions regarding the Milwaukee Paid Sick Leave Ordinance, please contact Pam Ploor at (414) 277-5661 /  or your Quarles & Brady attorney.

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