While California’s COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) law expired on December 31, 2022, the requirement to provide exclusion pay under Cal/OSHA’s COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards remained in place. Effective February 3, 2023 the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) adopted COVID-19 Prevention Non-Emergency Regulations, which do not feature exclusion pay. Visit the DIR’s dedicated webpage for more information on the new regulations.

California’s statewide SPSL requirements expire December 31, 2022. As of today there is no indication that they will be extended or reinstated, especially given the mayor’s October 17 announcement that the state’s COVID-19 State of Emergency will end on February 28, 2023. Any employee on leave as of the law’s expiration date may finish taking leave.

On September 29 the governor of California approved AB152, extending 2022 COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) requirements, originally set to expire September 30, through December 31, 2022. This extension does not provide additional leave to employees, it simply extends the time period during which an employee’s existing SPSL balance may be used. Employees taking SPSL as of December 31 may finish taking the full amount of SPSL to which they are entitled. (Please refer to our March 4 Statutory Update and/or our side-by-side comparison for more details.)

Our July 26 Statutory Update included a summary of San Francisco’s Public Health Emergency Leave (PHEL) Ordinance, which becomes effective October 1, 2022. The new (permanent) law requires employers to inform their employees of their rights to PHEL by posting a notice at each job site in all languages available and, where feasible, by providing it to employees via electronic communication, which may include email, text, and/or posting on the employer’s web- or app-based platform. The city’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OSLE) recently posted the model notice on their PHEL webpage.

On June 7 San Francisco voters approved Proposition G, which permanently adds Article 33F to the San Francisco Police Code and requires employers to make Public Health Emergency Leave (PHEL) available to their employees effective October 1, 2022. Below are the details outlined in the ordinance; future amendments or clarifications may come by way of regulations or ordinances adopted by the Board of Supervisors.

Last month the Oregon Employment Department (OED) announced that the contribution rate for OR PFML beginning January 1, 2023, will be 1% of employees’ wages (the law itself indicated that the rate was “not to exceed” 1%). The maximum wages subject to contribution will be $132,900. Of the total rate employers will contribute 40% and employees will contribute 60%. Employers with fewer than 25 employees nationwide are not required to pay the employer portion of the contribution. Employers may elect to pay the required employee contributions, in whole or in part, as an employer-offered benefit.

On May 10 the governor of Delaware signed the Healthy Delaware Families Act (SB1), establishing the “Delaware Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program” to provide job-protected paid leave to employees working in the state. Below is a summary of the law’s text.

On April 9 the Maryland General Assembly enacted the Time to Care Act of 2022 (SB275), overriding the governor’s veto the day before. The Act establishes the “Maryland Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program” to provide job-protected paid family and medical leave to employees working in the state. Provided is a summary of the law’s text. Regulations defining provisions and requirements are scheduled to be adopted by June 1, 2023.

On March 9 the mayor of Philadelphia signed Bill No. 220051-A, resurrecting the city’s Public Health Emergency Leave that expired last summer and renaming it “COVID-19 Leave”. Effective Dates: March 9, 2022 through December 31, 2023 Applies to: All Employers with 25 or more employees (2021 PHEL applied to employers with 50 or more employees); Employees who work for an employer within Philadelphia after March 9, 2022; normally work within Philadelphia but are currently teleworking from any other location as a result of COVID-19; or work for the employer from multiple or mobile locations, provided that 51% or more of their work time is spent in Philadelphia.

Long Beach: With the recent reinstatement of statewide COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) effective February 19 (see our March 4 Statutory Update for details), Long Beach’s SPSL ordinance has ended and only the state’s requirements apply.

Our February 3 Statutory Update included mention that legislation reinstating “COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave” was awaiting final approval. On Wednesday, February 9, SB114 was signed by the governor. Effective Date: February 19, 2022 COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) requirements are applicable retroactively to January 1, 2022, through September 30, 2022.

On January 25 the governor of California and members of the state legislature announced that they reached an agreement regarding reinstatement of COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave. In its current form, the proposed legislation (AB84 / SB114, as of February 2) features requirements that largely resemble those of the 2021 law that expired on September 30: Applies to employers with 26 or more employees.