Dive Brief:
- About 6.5 million Californians will become eligible for paid sick leave for the first time starting July 1.
- The law, authored in 2014, guarantees three days of paid sick leave for all California workers who work for at least 30 days a year.
- Both part-time and full-time employees are eligible after working for the same employer for 90 days. The law largely benefits workers in the retail and restaurant industries who often couldn’t afford to take a day off, even if a family health emergency required them to, according to USA Today.
Dive Insight:
With this law now active, employers must show how many hours of sick leave employees have accrued on their pay stubs and cannot force their employees to find a replacement for sick days taken. All businesses are required to provide the benefit, regardless of size, said USA Today.
Connecticut, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia all have laws mandating paid sick leave as well as at least 18 cities, including Portland, New York City and Jersey City.
Employers should be careful of any local ordinances on sick leave in order to remain compliant. Whichever policy, local or state, is more generous to the employee is the one that must be followed.
