The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) was passed into law on March 18, 2020. It goes into effect on April 2, 2020.
PAID SICK LEAVE
FFCRA provides the following temporary paid leave through December 31, 2020 and covers employers with fewer than 500 employees:
Expands FMLA with up to 12-weeks of paid leave if the employee is unable to work or telework due to a need to care for a child under 18 years of age when school or child care is closed or unavailable due to a public health emergency.
Amends FMLA for leave of absence related to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Provides for job protection, with some exemptions.
Provides two weeks (80 hours) of emergency paid sick leave.
EMERGENCY PAID SICK LEAVE
The Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA), which is part of FFCRA, requires employers with fewer than 500 employers to provide temporary paid sick leave to employees who are unable to work for any of the following reasons related to COVID-19:
The employee is subject to a federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order;
A health care provider has advised the employee to self-quarantine;
The employee is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking a medical diagnosis;
The employee is caring for someone who has been advised or ordered to quarantine;
The employee is caring for a son or daughter whose school or place of care has closed, or whose childcare provider is unavailable, because of COVID-19 precautions; or
The employee is experiencing any other substantially similar condition specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The rate of pay depends on the reason for the sick leave. If the reason is one through three above, the employee’s paid sick time is capped at $511 per day and $5,110 in the aggregate. If the reason is other than one through three, paid sick time is capped at $200 per day and $2,000 in the aggregate.
Full time employees are entitled to 80 hours of paid sick time. Part-time employees are entitled to sick time equal to the number of average hours that the employee works over a two-week period. For example, an employee works an average of 15 hours per week, the number of sick hours is 30.
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