State’s COVID-19 sick-leave policy is set to expire
program, enacted in California earlier this year, was funded by the federal government. That federal funding expires on Sept. 30, meaning if California were to extend the program, it would have to find new money or pass the cost to businesses.
Oakland resident Victor Moreno, 56, knows the value of extended sick pay. He got COVID-19 in January and received nearly two weeks of paid time off from his job at a Berkeley company making alternative meat products. That employer offered generous benefits and encouraged his time off, he said. But in his current job, at a San Francisco restaurant, it would be a different story if he were to get sick without the mandated extended sick leave.
“I don’t know how I would have survived” without the time off, said Moreno, who described COVID-19 as a “terrible experience.” “To have no income coming in when you’re that sick, I don’t know how people go through it.”
California requires all employers to offer three days of paid sick leave, but during the pandemic expanded the requirement for workplaces with more than 25 employees. SB 95, effective this past March, required them to provide an additional 80 paid hours off for COVID-related illness. Without lawmakers’ action to extend it, the requirement will be on track to die on Sept. 30.
Under legislative process, the SB95 extension needed to be in print Tuesday night to be eligible for a vote this week. Legislative aides gave no indication that would happen.
A special session or an executive order by the governor could be other ways to address the extension, but those avenues appeared an uphill challenge. After Friday’s close, lawmakers are not back until Jan. 3. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The California Chamber of Commerce opposed an SB95 extension on grounds that the federal tax credits that helped employers absorb the sickleave requirement are ending. An extension would leave “businesses that are struggling to rebuild burdened with a new obligation they cannot afford at this time,” the Chamber wrote to the Legislature last month. The organization also warned that “extending sick leave for those who have chosen to remain unvaccinated only encourages the decision to remain unvaccinated.”
Demand for sick leave has risen during the pandemic, particularly for some workers who risk more exposure to the virus, according to employment lawyers. Without paid leave, low-income workers, many of whom work in the retail, hospitality and restaurant industries, face an impossible choice in having to decide between their health and their work, they say.
“So many families can’t afford to go without their income right now,” said Katherine Wutchiett, staff attorney at Legal Aid at Work, a San Francisco nonprofit providing legal services to working-class families. “Even before the pandemic, for many people, it’s been hard to find a job that is healthy and safe and pays an income they need,” she said.
Wutchiett said the number of cases and inquiries around legal action on perceived unfair paid sick leave policies doubled at her work during the pandemic. She declined to provide specific figures, but called it “unthinkable that the state would let this expire.”
“We cannot let Sept. 30 come and go without extending this,” said Mitch Steiger, a legislative advocate at the California Labor Federation. “Workers need to take the time they need to get well if they get sick.”
California’s regular policy, ensuring three days of paid leave, dates to 2014. San Francisco enacted its own sick leave law in 2006.
A recent UCLA study found the U.S. to be lagging behind “almost every other country” in offering sick pay to its workers, a scenario that deepens social inequalities.
“The disparities in sick leave access are worsened by eligibility rules,” Dr. Jody Heymann, professor at UCLA’s School of Public Health and lead author of the study, told The Chronicle. “People of color have faced higher risks of financial ruin due to job losses, and higher risks of danger to their health because of working conditions exposing them to COVID-19.”
The U.S. is one of just 11 countries globally without required paid medical leave, the new study said. Though no federal law mandates pay, the Family and Medical Leave Act provides for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for serious medical conditions.
The Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative, which is a coalition of 11 greater Bay Area public health departments and the Public Health Alliance of Southern California, consisting of 10 health departments, implored the state to extend the state’s COVID sick leave policy as the delta variant picked up speed in late August.
“When workers do not have adequate paid leave, fear of job loss and resulting economic instability leads many to report to work even when they are ill, increasing the spread of infectious disease,” the coalition wrote.
For Moreno, the multiple days of paid sick leave were a lifesaver.
“A lot honestly depends on the work culture of a place. Even if something is legal, it doesn’t mean it’ll be looked upon as good when workers exercise their rights,” Moreno said. “I was lucky to have a good employer when I got COVID, but what if I worked somewhere else where that was not the case?”