California Paid Sick Leave Starts July 1, 2015
6.1.15
California’s new paid sick leave law kicks in this July 1st. Although some California laws apply only to businesses with a threshold number of employees, this law applies even if you have only one. Once an employee has worked at least 30 days—whether on a part time or full time basis, and even if working in a temporary position—he or she is entitled to paid sick leave.
Annually, each California employee must receive at least three days of paid sick leave, and the law provides employers two options for deciding how sick leave accrues. OPTION ONE: employees earn at least one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. If you implement such a policy, you can cap employees’ maximum accrual of sick leave at 48 hours or 6 days and can limit use to 24 hours/3 days of the paid sick leave time in any annual period. OPTION TWO: employees receive a lump-sum sick leave bank of 24 hours/3 days at the beginning of each year. If you do this, you need not allow employees to carryover unused accrued sick leave into the next year.
If you already have a vacation or paid time off (PTO) policy, you should review it now to be sure it complies with the new law. You may need to modify or expand your current policy.
If you do not provide employees any vacation or PTO, then you will need to adopt a sick leave policy in accordance with this new law.
The new law also includes specific posting and notice requirements, so if you have any questions about compliance with this, feel free to contact Ross Schwartz, Dick Semerdjian, Sarah Evans or Sierra Spitzer to discuss.