A worker on your assignment was paid for time they did not work — what paid sick leave is

Applies to: clients and hiring managers who see paid non-worked hours on a timesheet or invoice for a temporary or contract worker engaged through Ascen. It covers workers Ascen employs on a W-2 basis; independent contractors do not accrue paid leave, so this will not apply to them.

Summary: Most often it is paid sick leave earned under the law of the location where the worker works — not a PTO benefit somebody agreed to on the assignment. Two other lines can also show paid hours that were not worked: reporting time pay and cancellation pay, covered at the end of this article. Ascen is the employer of record for these workers, so where a state or city requires paid sick leave, we have to provide it, and the hours appear on your invoice.

Why a contract worker has paid leave at all

The usual reaction is "contractors don’t get paid days off — what was agreed here?" Nothing was agreed on the assignment. In a growing number of US states and cities, paid sick leave is a legal entitlement of employment: the worker accrues it from the hours they work (commonly an hour of leave for a set number of hours worked), and it is not something the employer, the agency or the client can opt out of. Because Ascen employs the worker, the obligation sits with us and we administer it.

This is separate from PTO or vacation. Many contract assignments have no PTO policy at all — and that does not remove the statutory sick leave entitlement.

It varies by work location

Whether the worker has this entitlement, how fast it accrues, what it can be used for, and whether a reason or documentation can be asked for all vary by the worker’s work location. Two workers on your account in different states can legitimately have different entitlements. In many jurisdictions, a worker may use accrued paid leave for any covered purpose — their own illness, medical or preventive care, or caring for a family member — without having to give you a reason. For the same reason, we cannot tell you why an individual worker took the time.

How it reaches your invoice

Paid sick, PTO and on-call hours are billed at the regular bill rate for the assignment, and appear as their own line on the timesheet. See Client billing settings explained — markup, overtime multipliers, and invoicing.

If the line is reporting time pay or cancellation pay

These are not leave at all, and they are the other reason paid non-worked hours appear:

• Reporting time pay — the worker travelled to the site for a scheduled shift and was given less work than they were scheduled for, or was sent home. Some work locations require a minimum payment when that happens.

• Cancellation pay — a scheduled shift was cancelled before it started.

Both are entered by Ascen rather than by the worker, are paid and billed at the regular rate for the assignment, and do not count toward overtime. What triggers them, and any minimum, varies by the worker’s work location and by what was agreed for the assignment — so check the specific line with us rather than assuming a rule applies everywhere. If you want to reduce them, the lever is notice: cancelling or shortening a shift earlier is a conversation with your staffing Partner.

What to do

• Coverage and scheduling — who covers the shift, and whether you need a replacement — is a conversation with your staffing Partner. They manage the placement.

• A specific entry, or a line on an invoice you don’t recognise — email support@ascen.com with the worker, the date and the invoice, and we will explain what the hours are.

• Do not ask the worker to justify the absence. Where paid leave is a legal entitlement, questions about how it is used should come to us rather than to them.

The worker-facing explanations, if you are asked about them, are How paid sick leave works and How to request time off.