09 May 2016 Los Angeles city council votes to expand paid sick leave benefits — review of California local paid sick leave benefits On April 19, 2016, the Los Angeles City Council voted to request that the city attorney prepare and present an ordinance to create a paid sick leave policy for employees in the City of Los Angeles. The number of hours of paid sick leave that a city employer would be required to provide under the city council's plan would be double that required under the California state paid sick leave law. Under California state law, employees must be allowed to take 24 hours (or three days, if employee regularly works eight or more hours per day) of paid sick leave per year, provided up front by the employer or accrued at a rate of one hour per every 30 hours worked (up to 48 hours can be accrued each year and carried over to the next year). Under the Los Angeles City Council's recommendations, employees would be entitled to take 48 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year, that must be provided up front by the employer or accrued at the rate of one hour per every 30 hours worked. Accrued paid sick leave under the city's plan would carry over to the following year and be capped at 72 hours. As with the state law, the proposed Los Angeles paid sick leave ordinance would apply to an employee who works in the city for the same employer for 30 days or more within a year. The city's paid sick leave ordinance would take effect on July 1, 2016, with an employee being allowed to use paid sick leave beginning on the 90th day of employment or July 1, 2016, whichever is later. Employers of 25 or fewer employees would be granted a one-year delay in the effective date of the ordinance. Under the San Francisco paid sick leave ordinance: — An employee accrues one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The San Francisco ordinance differs from California state law in that while the state allows an employer to limit an employee's use of paid sick leave to 24 hours per year, a San Francisco employee's use of accrued sick leave is only limited by the amount that he or she has accrued. — The cap on accrual is 40 hours for small businesses having fewer than 10 workers and 72 hours for other businesses. California state law provides for a cap of 48 hours, regardless of the size of the employer. — The accrual cap is not an annual cap. Whenever an employee's accrued leave drops below the cap due to usage, the employee begins again to accrue; this is referred to as a "floating" cap. The Oakland paid sick leave ordinance is similar to San Francisco. Under the Oakland paid sick leave ordinance: — An employee working at least two hours per workweek accrues one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The Oakland ordinance differs from California state law in that while the state allows an employer to limit an employee's use of paid sick leave to 24 hours per year, an Oakland employee's use of accrued sick leave is only limited by the amount that he or she has accrued. — The cap on accrual is 40 hours for small businesses having fewer than 10 workers and 72 hours for other businesses. California state law provides for a cap of 48 hours, regardless of the size of the employer. — The accrual cap is not an annual cap. Whenever an employee's accrued leave drops below the cap due to usage, the employee begins again to accrue. Under the city of Emeryville's paid sick leave ordinance: — An employee accrues one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The Emeryville ordinance differs from California state law in that while the state allows an employer to limit an employee's use of paid sick leave to 24 hours per year, an Emeryville employee's use of accrued sick leave is only limited by the amount that he or she has accrued. — There is a cap on accrual of 48 hours for small businesses of 55 or fewer employees and 72 hours for other businesses. California state law provides for a cap of 48 hours, regardless of the size of the employer. — The accrual cap is not an annual cap. Whenever an employee's accrued leave drops below the cap due to usage, the employee begins again to accrue. As we previously reported, the city of Santa Monica passed an ordinance at the beginning of the year to require employers to provide paid sick leave beginning July 1, 2016. Recently, the Santa Monica City Council voted to postpone the effective date of the ordinance to January 1, 2017, and provide for a phased-in implementation. Under the Santa Monica ordinance: — Employers must comply starting January 1, 2017 (before this date, employers are instructed to comply with state law). — An employee accrues one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The Santa Monica ordinance differs from California state law in that while the state allows an employer to limit an employee's use of paid sick leave to 24 hours per year, a Santa Monica employee's use of accrued sick leave will only be limited by the amount that he or she has accrued. a. January 1, 2017: 32 hours for small businesses of 25 or fewer employees; 40 hours for larger businesses. — Employees can carry over accrued sick leave annually (calendar year, fiscal year, or hiring date) up to the accrual cap. — Employers can provide sick leave at the start of the year as a whole rather than by accrual, as long as this provides leave consistent with the required accrual amounts. Under San Diego's paid sick leave and minimum wage ordinance, which passed in 2014 but is on hold until voters decide its fate on June 7, 2016 (see Proposition I on page 107 of the ballot measures), an employee would accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The San Diego ordinance differs from California state law in that while the state allows an employer to limit an employee's use of paid sick leave to 24 hours per year (with an accrual cap of 48 hours), a San Diego employee's use of accrued sick leave is limited to 40 hours in a benefit year, but employers must allow employees to continue to accrue sick leave hours with no cap. California state paid sick leave law does not preempt local paid sick leave ordinances, so employers must comply with the law that has the more generous provisions. The states of California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia and numerous other cities, such as New York City, and other municipalities mandate that employers provide paid sick leave to employees. The president's fiscal year 2017 budget proposal calls for states to establish paid sick leave programs, providing more than $2 billion for a Paid Leave Partnership Initiative to help up to five states launch paid family and medical leave programs. Another political hot button is the call for paid parental leave. California, New Jersey and Rhode Island currently are the only states that have employee-funded paid parental leave laws that provide for partial wage replacement for a limited amount of time spent bonding with a new child. As we reported in Tax Alert 2016-622, a recently-enacted New York budget bill provides for employee-funded paid parental leave starting January 1, 2018. The New York parental leave program will also provide only for partial wage replacement. San Francisco recently passed an ordinance that requires employers to make up the difference between the partial wage replacement under the California Paid Family Leave (PFL) program and the employee's normal weekly wages to employees taking parental leave. Vermont Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is advocating for paid federal parental leave benefits funded by employee contributions into an insurance fund, such as Social Security (S. 786). Several states (i.e., Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Ohio) have legislation pending that would provide for paid family and/or sick leave.
Document ID: 2016-0832 | ||||||||||||||||||||
