Paid Sick Leave Updates

Paid Sick Leave Updates

Since our August 2020 newsletter, additional jurisdictions have enacted paid sick leave laws, including Maine (effective January 1, 2021), New York (sick leave accrual started September 30, 2020, but employees were ineligible to start to using the additional leave until January 1, 2021), and Colorado (effective January 1, 2021). Maine’s new leave is unique in that it is unlike sick leave and more like PTO because it can be used for any reason. New York City, not to be outdone by New York State, revised its own Earned Sick and Safe Time Act to more closely resemble the state’s version with certain elements going into effect on September 30, 2020, and giving more hours of paid sick leave to employees of large employers with 100 or more employees effective January 1, 2021 (increasing from 40 hours to 56 hours). For more information on non-COVID-19 state and locality sick leave laws, please contact EP labor relations.

Other jurisdictions also passed emergency paid sick leave laws in response to COVID-19 that appeared intended to be temporary measures set to expire at a specific date or after the national health emergency has ended. These jurisdictions include the federal government (i.e., Families First Coronavirus Response Act, or FFCRA), New York State, New Jersey, District of Columbia, Nevada, Colorado, Michigan, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, California (click here for EP Legal Alert about California’s supplemental paid sick leave law), and many California cities and counties including San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles County & City, Sacramento County & City, San Mateo County, Long Beach, and Oakland. As of the publication date of this article, emergency sick leave under the FFCRA expired on December 31, 2020, as did the temporary COVID-19 sick leave laws of California, Los Angeles County, Philadelphia, and Colorado. But, as always, the legislature can extend those laws or pass additional legislation to replace them.