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New Mexico Paid Sick Leave

Labor Relations   >   Labor Information   >   New Mexico Paid Sick Leave

About New Mexico Paid Sick Leave (Healthy Workplaces Act)


The Healthy Workplaces Act of 2021 is a law requiring all private employers in New Mexico to allow employees to accrue and use a benefit called earned sick leave. The law took effect on July 1, 2022. The Act lets employees earn and use paid sick leave. Employees may use this leave for various reasons listed in the Act, like the employee’s or their qualifying family member's illness or injury, or to deal with certain legal and family issues. Employers who do not honor an employee’s rights to sick leave face potential civil liability. The Act authorizes the Labor Relations Division (LRD) of the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions (DWS) to investigate violations and enforce the Healthy Workplaces Act.

Employers with paid-time-off policies that are more generous than the minimum accrual and usage limits specified in Act are compliant with the Act if employees may use the leave for the same purposes and under the same terms and conditions specified in the Act.

The earned sick leave required by the Act is in addition to any paid time off provided by an employer pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement unless employees may use the paid time off for the same purposes and under the same terms and conditions specified in the Act.

Healthy Workplaces Act Final Rules 

Healthy Workplaces State Statute, NMSA Chapter 50, Article 17 - PDF

 

File Now

File online by clicking the link below

Healthy Workplaces Act Complaint Form - English

Formulario de Denuncia de la Ley de Lugares de Trabajo Saludables - Español

Frequently Asked Paid Sick Leave Questions

FAQs all-in-one - PDF

There are two ways:

  • Online at https://www.dws.state.nm.us/NMPaidSickLeave. About a third of the way down on the left side are links to the online Healthy Workplaces Act Complaint Form in English and Spanish. About a third of the way down on the right side are links to download a form, which you can fill out, physically sign, and then mail, email, fax, or drop-off to our offices in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. You can also drop off the form at any Workforce Connections office around the state.

  • In-person at any Labor Relation Division office or New Mexico Workforce Connection Center for help in obtaining and/or filling out a paper form, which you can then sign and leave with staff, or take the form home and later mail, email, fax, or drop it off at these locations.

Employees or their immediate family member. A family member means an employee’s spouse or domestic partner or a person related to an employee or an employee’s spouse or domestic partner as:

  • a biological, adopted or foster child, a stepchild or legal ward, or a child to whom the employee stands in loco parentis;

  • a biological, foster, step or adoptive parent or legal guardian, or a person who stood in loco parentis when the employee was a minor child;

  • a grandparent;

  • a grandchild;

  • a biological, foster, step or adopted sibling;

  • a spouse or domestic partner of a family member; or

  • an individual whose close association with the employee or the employee's spouse or domestic partner is the equivalent of a family relationship.


An employee may use earned sick leave:

  • for the employee's:


    1. mental or physical illness, injury or health condition;

    2. medical diagnosis, care or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury or health condition; or

    3. preventive medical care;


  • for care of family members of the employee for the same reasons as above;

  • for meetings at the employee's child's school or place of care related to the child's health or disability; or

  • for absence necessary due to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking suffered by the employee or a family member of the employee, provided that the leave is for the employee to:


    1. obtain medical or psychological treatment or other counseling;

    2. relocate;

    3. prepare for or participate in legal proceedings; or

    4. obtain services or assist a family member of the employee with any of the activities set forth in Subparagraphs (1) through (3) of this paragraph.



This is up to the employer. The employer could choose to grant an employee 64 hours at the beginning of the year, or they can provide one hour for every thirty hours worked throughout the year. You should contact your employer’s human resources department for more information.

If you have no more accrued sick leave available, your request for sick leave no longer falls under the Healthy Workplaces Act and its protections. Whether your employer will issue disciplinary action will be determined by the employer’s policy. You should contact your employer’s HR Department or consult the employer’s policies to determine what, if any, disciplinary actions may be issued.

The Act does not require earned sick leave to be paid out upon an employee’s separation, however, an employer may have a policy that allows it. Employees who do receive payout of some or all their unused leave upon separation will be deemed to have used that leave. Those employees will not be eligible to have this leave restored if they return to the company within 12 months.

The employer is only responsible to pay for paid sick leave accrued under the Healthy Workplaces Act. If an employee takes more sick leave than the paid sick leave hours accrued, the employer is not required to pay for these additional hours, unless otherwise provided for in the employer’s policies. Additionally, an employee may be disciplined according to an employer’s policy for any hours they are absent from work for which they do not have accrued paid sick leave to use or some other type of leave that could appropriately cover the absence. Employees should contact their employer’s HR Department or consult the employer’s policies for further information.
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Contact Labor Relations Division

Albuquerque Map
Albuquerque
401 Broadway Blvd NE
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Phone: 505-841-4400
Fax: 505-841-4424

Resources, Guides, and Training

Paid Sick Leave Poster

Resources

Healthy Workplaces Act Complaint Form

This form is for complaints alleging violations of the accrued sick leave requirements under the New Mexico Healthy Workplaces Act

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