Paid Sick Leave

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[UPDATE: The California Labor Commissioner updated its FAQs in April to provide further clarification as to when employees may use COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave (COVID-19 SPSL). Highlights from the updated guidance include:

  • For employees to receive COVID-19 SPSL due to daycare closures, the closure must have been a total or partial closure that occurred on or after January 1, 2021, and rendered the care unavailable, because of COVID-19 on the premises.
  • An employee may receive COVID-19 SPSL if they are caring for a family member either because the family member has been advised by a medical professional to stay home due to COVID-19, or the family member is subject to a COVID-19 related quarantine or isolation period.
  • Employers must provide COVID-19 SPSL immediately upon the eligible employee’s oral or written request.]

On March 19, 2021 Governor Newsom signed into law SB 95 (adding sections 248.2 and 248.3 to the Labor Code), which requires employers to pay California employees up to two weeks of COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave (COVID-19 SPSL).

This new law revives and expands the supplemental paid sick leave law that expired on December 31, 2020. As a result of these changes from the prior iteration of California’s Supplemental Paid Sick Leave law, many more California employers will be required to provide, and many more employees will be eligible for, COVID-19 SPSL.
Continue Reading California brings back, and expands, COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave

On August 27, 2020, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued guidance (in FAQs numbered 98-100) clarifying how the childcare provisions of the Family First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) apply to various remote and in-person school situations. As a reminder, the FFCRA generally requires private employers with fewer than 500 employees and many public sector employers…

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