Does your company offer its employees paid sick leave? Too expensive? Seen as unnecessary given the company’s “Paid Time Off” policy? Well, here’s a head’s up: paid sick leave for employees is on the rise and may be coming your way.

Efforts to make paid sick leave a right for every worker are gaining ground in city councils, state legislatures and the U.S. Congress. In fact, in some cities, paid sick leave is already required by law. Both San Francisco and Washington D.C. already have passed ordinances requiring such leave for some workers. In Washington D.C., the “Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of 2008” requires all employers to provide each employee with some amount of paid leave depending on the employer’s size. For example, an employer with 25 to 99 employees must provide each employee at least 1 hour of paid leave for every 43 hours worked, not to exceed 5 days of leave per year. In San Francisco, all “employers” who employ persons within the geographic boundaries of San Francisco must provide approximately eight paid sick days per year for full-time workers.

New York City is looking to join San Francisco and Washington D.C. in requiring employers to provide paid sick days for employees. A bill currently pending in New York City’s City Council would require employers of 10 or more persons to provide eligible employees with up to 9 paid sick days per year. Employees in companies with fewer than 10 employees could earn 5 paid sick days per year. Under the proposed legislation, workers would earn 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work, starting after 90 days of employment. New York City employees could take sick days to care for themselves, care for a sick family member, or even care for children who were not sick but whose schools were closed for public health reasons.

Several states have weighed or are weighing whether to follow these city ordinances and mandate employers with a minimum amount of employees to provide its workers with a certain amount of paid sick leave per year. Such states include Ohio, Massachusetts, California, North Carolina, Florida and Virginia. The proposed laws vary, but under the general scheme of the proposals, some amount of mandated sick time is accrued as the employee accumulates hours worked, up to a certain number of hours or days per year.

Congress has also weighed in and, on May 18, 2009, the Healthy Families Act of 2009 (H.R. 2460) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill, which is largely the same as bills issued in prior sessions of Congress, would require employers with more than 15 employees to provide workers with up to 56 hours of paid sick leave each year. Under the bill, workers would accrue paid sick leave at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked, could begin using the paid sick leave after 60 days of employment, and could roll over unused sick leave into the next calendar year. Employees could use the sick leave to care for their own medical needs, their family members’ medical needs, or for absences related to domestic abuse and sexual assault.

In light of the flurry of proposed legislation on paid sick leave, employers should scrutinize their leave policies and confer with their employment counsel to determine if any of the potential laws will apply to them and, if so, to determine if they comply with the minimum legal requirements.