On April 1, 2020, the Paid Emergency Sick Leave Act Law became law. The Act provides sick time to employees who are unable to work due to Covid 19 related illness.
Sick time is to be paid to an employee if one of the following occurs:
(1) An employee experiencing symptoms of Covid 19 and is seeking medical diagnosis;
(2) An employee is in Quarantine or isolation due to Covid 19 infection;
(3) Self Quarantine is ordered by a health care provider;
(4) An employee is caring for a child due to the school of child care closure due to Covid 19.
(5) An employee is experiencing any other substantially similar condition specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the Secretary of Treasury and Secretary of Labor.
Who Does The Sick Leave Act Apply To?
The Sick Leave Act applies to private or public sector employers with less than 500 employees. There is also an option for employers with less than 50 employees to apply for an exemption from the Department of Labor. The standard for applying for the exemption is if compliance will jeopardize the viability of the business as an on-going concern. The Department of Labor has released some guidelines for the latter provision.
What Benefits are Paid?
An employee can use existing sick leave benefits instead of the sick leave benefits provided by this new Act but cannot be forced to use their existing sick leave benefits. If the employee opts for the new Act benefits then a Full-Time employee is entitled to up to 80 hours of sick time leave. In effect, two weeks of sick leave. A Part-Time employee is entitled to 2/3’s of the amount of their usual pay.
The paid sick time cannot exceed the following amounts:
$511.00 per day to a maximum of $5,110.00 for reasons (1), or (2) listed above.
200.00 per day to a maximum of $2,000.00 for reasons (3), (4), and (5) listed above.
Under the Act, Employers will receive a tax credit for payments made to employees so that is good news for employers.
For more information on the Family First Sick Leave Act please click here. For More information on your rights related to receiving Workers Compensation in lieu of sick leave, please click here.