New California sick leave policy will apply to any worker who caught COVID in 2022

California workers who had to miss work because they or a loved one caught COVID-19 this year will be able to get at least 40 hours of paid sick leave under a bill passed by the state Legislature on Monday.

The bill applies to anyone at a company with more than 26 employees and covers time taken off between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30.

Workers can use the 40 hours of paid leave for a swath of COVID-19-related reasons, including COVID-19 symptoms, vaccine appointments, or caring for a family member with COVID-19 or a child whose school or place of care is closed due to COVID-19.

If the worker exhausts the initial 40 hours, they’re entitled to another another 40 hours of leave if they or a family member they’re caring for tests positive for COVID-19. The employee can take time off if they’re waiting for test results, and the employer must make a test available to the employee at no cost.

But if the employee doesn’t take a test or refuses to provide results, the employer doesn’t have to grant them another 40 hours of leave.

It now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has promised to sign it, for final action.

Senate Bill 114 is similar to a measure lawmakers enacted last year that expired in September. But in light of rising cases over the winter months, Newsom, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and state Senate President pro tem Toni Atkins agreed on a plan to reinstate the supplemental benefits.

The move was praised by labor groups and unions across the state, who said it was critical to slow the spread of the virus while giving workers the support they need to stay afloat.

“As the Omicron surge intensified, workers screamed from the rooftops about the desperate need to reinstate COVID paid sick leave,” said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, in a statement.

“Paid sick leave is key to ensuring no worker has to make the impossible choice of going to work sick or losing wages needed to make rent and keep food on the table.”

The bill provides $100,000 to the state labor commissioner to implement and enforce the new sick leave rules, but employers are largely responsible for bearing the burden of the cost, which the Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated would cost between $500 million and $1 billion. Unlikely last year, businesses will not have federal tax benefits to offset the costs.

Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco and chair of the Assembly budget committee, said lawmakers were not able to put financial relief in this specific bill, but said they could enact some kind of relief for businesses in the June budget proposal.

“We were not able to get that into this proposal, but it’s something that we continue to talk bout and we really would love to see that in the June budget proposal,” Ting said.

A representative for the California Restaurant Association told members of the Assembly budget committee that the requirement would be a further burden on a sector that is still struggling from the pandemic.

“Restaurants were the first to be closed during the pandemic and will be the last to recover from the devastating financial impact of these closures,” said Katie Hansen, the association’s senior legislative director. “Still today restaurants are struggling with a shortage of workers that is forcing restaurants to limit their operations. The spike in cost of labor, food and supplies as well as any debt the business may have incurred from the pandemic. So any additional cost increases will impact a restaurant’s ability to recover.”

Assemblyman Vince Fong, R-Kern County, and vice chair of the budget committee, said there will be “significant unintended consequences” to this bill.

“Requiring small businesses and nonprofits to pay up to two weeks of sick pay leave, on top of existing pay leave, is a financial burden that could bankrupt a local store, a local restaurant, or a nonprofit that’s barely holding on by the skin of its teeth,” Fong said.

State Sen. Andreas Boregeas, R-Fresno, said the state’s should use its $31 billion budget surplus to shoulder the burden of the policy.

“Asking these small businesses to do so I think is an unnecessary burden when we have the capabilities to step in,” Boregeas said.