No, the paid sick leave law addresses only the rate of pay that must be paid for time taken off as paid sick leave; it does not address or impact the rate of pay for paid time off taken for other purposes, such as vacation time or personal time.
Under the paid sick leave law, an employer must pay an employee for time taken for paid sick leave using any of the following calculations:
- (1) Paid sick time for nonexempt employees shall be calculated in the same manner as the regular rate of pay for the workweek in which the employee uses paid sick time, whether or not the employee actually works overtime in that workweek.
- (2) Paid sick time for nonexempt employees shall be calculated by dividing the employee’s total wages, not including overtime premium pay, by the employee’s total hours worked in the full pay periods of the prior 90 days of employment.
- (3) Paid sick time for exempt employees shall be calculated in the same manner as the employer calculates wages for other forms of paid leave time.
(Lab. Code § 246, subd. (l), emphasis added.)
In general terms, these provisions mean that time taken off as paid sick leave must be paid at an employee’s regular rate of pay, either for the workweek in which the paid sick leave was taken, or as determined by averaging over a 90-day period.
An employer using a “grandfathered” (i.e., existing) paid time off policy or plan must ensure that the plan “makes available an amount of leave applicable to employees that may be used for the same purposes [i.e., for paid sick leave] and under the same conditions [i.e., paid at the same rate] as specified in” section 246 of the new law. This means that an employer using a grandfathered paid time off plan must ensure that time that is taken off for paid sick leave must be paid in the manner as specified in the new law (as quoted and summarized above).
The new paid sick leave law, however, does not address in any way, nor impact, how employers must compensate employees under existing paid time off plans for time that is taken off for purposes other than paid sick leave, for example, for time that is taken as vacation, or for personal holidays, etc. (Note, however, the provisions of Labor Code section 227.3 concerning the requirements for payment for vested vacation time at termination of employment.) In practical terms, this means that an employer may compensate employees under an existing paid time off plan for vacation or personal holiday time, during employment, at a “base rate” of pay, whereas time taken as paid sick leave must be paid at a higher regular rate of pay (determined for the workweek or by a 90-day average), as described above.
October 2018
Tags: Paid Sick Leave, California