Paid Sick Leave and Paid Family Leave Under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act
/The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) was passed on March 14, 2020 and requires that employers with 500 or fewer employees provide paid sick leave and paid family leave to employees under certain conditions. This law takes effect on April 1, 2020 and applies to leave taken between April 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020.
The law provides that employees are eligible for the following paid sick leave:
Two weeks (up to 80 hours) of paid sick leave at the employee’s regular rate of pay where the employee is unable to work because the employee is quarantined pursuant to a governmental order or on advice of a health care provider and/or experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and seeking a medical diagnosis. The amount paid is capped at $511 per day and $5,110 in total.
Two weeks (up to 80 hours) of paid sick leave at two-thirds the employee’s regular rate of pay because the employee is unable to work because of a bona fide need to care for an individual subject to quarantine pursuant to governmental order or on advice of a health care provider, or to care for a child under age 18 whose school or child care provider is closed. The amount paid is capped at $200 per day and $2,000 in total.
The law provides that employees are eligible for the following paid family leave:
Up to an additional 10 weeks of paid family leave at two-thirds the employee’s regular rate of pay where an employee, who has been employed for at least 30 days, is unable to work due to a bona fide need for leave to care for a child whose school or child care provider is closed due to COVID-19. The first 10 days of this leave are unpaid. The amount paid is capped at $200 per day and $10,000 total.
If employees can telework, they are not required to be paid either type of leave. Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees may qualify for an exemption from the requirements to provide extra paid sick leave and extra paid family care leave due to school closings or child care unavailability if the company can demonstrate that doing so would jeopardize the viability of the business as a going concern. The exemption does not apply to paid sick leave for any of the other enumerated reasons. Such businesses would have to show certain conditions are established in order to claim the exemption.
The Act provides a refundable tax credit for employers for leave paid by an employer under the Act, which is applied against an employer’s total portion of Social Security taxes.
The U.S. Department of Labor has compiled an extensive FAQ series here.