How to handle paid sick leave

Wave makes it easy to allocate and pay out sick leave, whether you are offering paid sick time as required by employment standards or have your own company-specific plan as part of your employment agreement

In this article


Confirm sick leave requirements

As an employer, it’s your responsibility to ensure you meet the obligations of any applicable employment standards and your employment agreement.

Prince Edward Island has a paid sick leave requirement for employees with more than five years of continuous service. Learn more in this Prince Edward Island government resource.

BC has mandated a new paid sick leave policy for employees who have been employed for more than 90 consecutive days. Learn more about BC Illness or Injury Leave.

Several provinces and territories have implemented new requirements due to COVID-19 and vaccination efforts. Learn more about these in [Canada] How to handle paid sick leave related to COVID-19


 

How to review your current sick leave policy

Sick leave policies are created at the employee level. You need to set a sick leave policy for each employee in Wave.

  1. Click Payroll in the menu at the left side of your screen.
  2. Then click Employees.
  3. To the right of the employee whose policy you want to review, click Edit. 
  4. Click Sick Leave.

 

How to opt in to a paid sick leave policy

Remember that each employee’s paid sick leave policy needs to be modified separately.

  1. Navigate to the sick leave page as outlined in Review your current sick leave policy
  2. To begin to offer paid sick leave click Opt In
  3. A summary of how the basic sick leave policy works is displayed, and changes can be made in the next step. Once you’ve reviewed the details, click Confirm.

 

How to modify your paid sick leave policy

Remember that each employee’s paid sick leave policy needs to be modified separately.

  1. Navigate to the sick leave page as outlined in Review your current sick leave policy
  2. To make a change to the existing policy, click the pen icon. You’ll find helpful instructions to help you make changes to your sick leave policy.
  3. Click save changes to save any changes and return to the sick leave policy page.

 

How to pay employees who use their sick leave

To add paid sick time to employee pay, enter the hours of sick time being used into their timesheet before approving payroll. Learn how in How to fill in your employee's timesheet.