Update Your Sick Leave Policy to Comply with New State Laws
Filed under: Payroll
Beginning July 1, new state-wide regulations on paid sick leave became effective. All employers in the state of California must now provide both full- and part-time employees with paid sick leave, once they have reached 30 days of employment with the company.
Employers must offer a minimum of one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked by each employee. This includes overtime hours.
In addition to providing paid sick leave, employers must allow employees to carry over all accrued, unused sick leave from one year to the next. However, employers are allowed to cap accrued sick leave to 48 hours (or six eight-hour work days).
Employers are not required to cash out unused sick leave at termination of employment, as they are with unused vacation days. However, if an employee is rehired within one year, all previously unused sick leave is to be reinstated.
If your company already provides paid sick leave or paid time off, you may not be required to update your practices under the new law. If your current policy satisfies all accrual, usage, and carryover requirements, and if you provide no less than 24 hours of paid sick leave for each year of employment, then you don’t have to do anything.
If you do not already have a paid sick leave policy in place, you need to implement one. Take the following measures immediately to ensure that your company is compliant with the new law:
- Review your paid sick leave policy to ensure that your accrual, usage, and carryover requirements comply with the new law
- Update your payroll and timekeeping practices to make sure you are properly tracking and calculating accrued and used sick leave
- Properly train supervisors on the requirements of the new law
If you have questions about the new law, contact R&R Payroll and Bookkeeping Services (951 – 296-0412). We can help you update your sick leave accrual and bookkeeping practices so that you can ensure compliance with the law.
