Happy New Year, Pittsburgh! Along with our resolutions, we can look forward to a few new things this brand new year – including another rate hike from the PA Turnpike. (We’re looking at those well into the 2040s, however.) There are some brand new laws in Pittsburgh and in Pennsylvania, that will also go into effect this year. Here’s a peek at a few of them.

  1. Paid sick days law

Flickr/Sergio Santos If you work for a private employer within Pittsburgh city limits, you’ll have the right to paid sick days, beginning March 20, 2020. That means for every 35 hours you work, you’ll earn one hour of paid sick time. However, paid sick time is capped according to the size of your employer’s business. If your employer has fewer than 15 employees, she must provide a maximum of 24 paid sick hours. Employers with 15 or more employees are required to pay up to 40 hours of paid sick time.

  1. Register to vote deadline changes

Flickr/Kristin Ausk Not sure if you’re registered to vote? While voters are encouraged to register to vote as soon as possible before an election, Pennsylvania’s voters now have more time to register. Voting registration will close 15 days prior to an upcoming election, instead of 30 days at it was previously.

  1. Vote by mail

Flickr/Robert Stinnett Find it too challenging to actually get to your polling location on Election Day? Good news! A new law allows Pennsylvania voters to vote by mail, beginning with the primaries in April 2020. However, you will have to mail in your ballot no more than 50 days before the election. While polling stations will be open longer beginning in 2020, another change to election protocol, you can request a mail-in ballot for all upcoming elections.

  1. Smoking and vaping age rises to 21

Flickr/Jocelyn Beginning in July, smokers and vapers must be 21 to legally buy tobacco and other smoking and vaping products.

  1. Hunting allowed on three Sundays

Flickr/Fool4myCanon Pennsylvania hunters will have three Sundays on which they can hunt in 2020. The dates have not yet been announced. However, the Pennsylvania Game Commission will designate one Sunday for hunting while Governor Tom Wolf will assign one Sunday for hunting during deer season and another for deer archery.

  1. GI Bill

Wikipedia/Public Domain Both National Guard members and their families will receive assistance with furthering their education, due to a new GI Bill. Five years of free tuition will be available to eligible National Guard Members. Their spouses and children will be eligible for discounted tuition at state colleges and universities.

What do you think of the new laws in Pittsburgh? Yay or nay? Let us know in the comments! While we’re on the subject of laws, we might as well have a little fun, right? Here are 10 laws we’ve all probably unwittingly broken.

Flickr/Sergio Santos

If you work for a private employer within Pittsburgh city limits, you’ll have the right to paid sick days, beginning March 20, 2020. That means for every 35 hours you work, you’ll earn one hour of paid sick time. However, paid sick time is capped according to the size of your employer’s business. If your employer has fewer than 15 employees, she must provide a maximum of 24 paid sick hours. Employers with 15 or more employees are required to pay up to 40 hours of paid sick time.

Flickr/Kristin Ausk

Not sure if you’re registered to vote? While voters are encouraged to register to vote as soon as possible before an election, Pennsylvania’s voters now have more time to register. Voting registration will close 15 days prior to an upcoming election, instead of 30 days at it was previously.

Flickr/Robert Stinnett

Find it too challenging to actually get to your polling location on Election Day? Good news! A new law allows Pennsylvania voters to vote by mail, beginning with the primaries in April 2020. However, you will have to mail in your ballot no more than 50 days before the election. While polling stations will be open longer beginning in 2020, another change to election protocol, you can request a mail-in ballot for all upcoming elections.

Flickr/Jocelyn

Beginning in July, smokers and vapers must be 21 to legally buy tobacco and other smoking and vaping products.

Flickr/Fool4myCanon

Pennsylvania hunters will have three Sundays on which they can hunt in 2020. The dates have not yet been announced. However, the Pennsylvania Game Commission will designate one Sunday for hunting while Governor Tom Wolf will assign one Sunday for hunting during deer season and another for deer archery.

Wikipedia/Public Domain

Both National Guard members and their families will receive assistance with furthering their education, due to a new GI Bill. Five years of free tuition will be available to eligible National Guard Members. Their spouses and children will be eligible for discounted tuition at state colleges and universities.

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Address: Pittsburgh, PA, USA