Paid Sick Leave

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On July 14, 2020, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (Law). The law has two significant impacts. First, as a temporary measure, it immediately expands leave rights related to COVID-19 by requiring employers of any size (including employers with greater than 500 employees who are exempt from the Families…

The District of Columbia recently adopted a new version of emergency laws requiring employers to provide both paid and unpaid leave to eligible employees for certain COVID-19 related reasons. The Mayor signed the Coronavirus Support Emergency Amendment Act of 2020 and the Coronavirus Support Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2020 (together, CSEA) into law on…

Benefits will be available to employees under the District of Columbia’s paid family and medical leave program, known as D.C. Paid Family Leave (DCPFL), starting July 1, 2020. As discussed in our prior posts here and here, DCPFL provides partial wage replacement benefits to eligible employees who need to take leave for certain medical or family reasons. The program is funded by employer payroll taxes, which D.C. employers began paying in July 2019. DCPFL is administered by the Department of Employment Services (DOES), which will make eligibility determinations and pay benefits directly to employees.…
Continue Reading Are you ready for D.C. paid family/medical leave on July 1? Questions & Answers for employers, including benefits coordination

California food sector workers now have the right to additional paid sick leave, even if they work for large employers exempted from the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). And they are also entitled to handwashing breaks every 30 minutes and additionally as needed.…
Continue Reading California grants additional paid sick leave rights to food sector workers

The Mayor of the District of Columbia recently signed two emergency laws that expand obligations of employers to provide leave to employees for COVID-19 reasons:

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) imposes new requirements – and offers off-setting tax credits – for employers with fewer than 500 employees to provide paid leave for COVID-19-related reasons, as previously explained here, here and here. That left many employers with more than 500 employees assuming they were off the hook, but if they have employees in certain California cities, that may not be the case.…
Continue Reading Larger California employers face growing local requirements to provide paid COVID-19-related sick leave and other accommodations

As discussed in prior blog posts, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) will require covered employers to provide certain levels of paid emergency sick leave and paid Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave to employees for specified coronavirus-related reasons. In general, as explained in those posts, the minimum number of hours of the paid sick leave that employers must provide is 80 hours for full time employees, with pro-rated amounts for part time employees based on the average number of hours they work over a two week period. …
Continue Reading Payroll tax credits under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act

President Trump signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) into law on March 18, 2020, the same day that it passed the Senate. Among other emergency measures intended to address the coronavirus pandemic, the FFCRA requires covered employers to provide employees with two distinct types of leave for coronavirus-related reasons—up to 2 weeks of paid sick leave, and job-protected leave under the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the first 10 days of which may be unpaid and the remainder of which must be paid. Pay may be full pay or partial pay depending on the specific reason for the leave and is subject to caps.…
Continue Reading President signs historic law requiring paid sick leave and paid FMLA leave for coronavirus-related needs

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), a broad response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, has passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 363-40 and is expected to pass in the Senate and be signed into law by President Trump. The bill would impose significant obligations on covered employers, including requiring covered employers to provide employees who have a qualifying coronavirus-related need with up to 2 weeks of paid sick leave and up to 12 weeks of FMLA leave, most of which is partially paid. Although subject to change, the most recent iteration of the bill has the following key provisions:…
Continue Reading Families First Coronavirus Response Act could mean massive changes for employers nationwide

With the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) rising in California, the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) and the Employment Development Department (EDD) have issued guidance and reminders on use of paid sick leave and other benefits for those forced off the job by COVID-19. The San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) has also rolled out guidance for employees in San Francisco on use of paid sick leave under the city’s law.…
Continue Reading Coronavirus in California: State confirms paid leave benefits and protections available to employees