Seyfarth Synopsis: We’ve regularly reported on California’s peculiar paid sick leave laws. Not counting industry-specific paid sick laws (e.g., the Long Beach and Los Angeles ordinances regulating hotel employers), there are now six California city ordinances mandating paid sick leave.[1] This week’s focus is on changes to the San Diego law, effective September 2, 2016.

The San Diego ordinance, originally proposed in 2014, had been put on hold pending a voter referendum. Voters passed the referendum on June 16, 2016. As passed, the referendum lacked key details. Conspicuously absent were permissible caps on annual accrual and carryover. As passed, the referendum did not allow employers to “front load” sick leave once per year (in an “annual grant”). The California Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 made annual front-loading a popular option. The referendum also failed to state an effective date.

By action of the S.D. City Council, the effective date became July 11, 2016. On that same day, the City Council passed the first reading of a 21-page Implementing Ordinance available here making amendments and clarifications. The Implementing Ordinance did not go into effect immediately, but faced the normal implementation process: a second reading, mayoral signature, and a 30-day waiting period before taking effect. The Implementing Ordinance was signed by the mayor on August 3, 2016, and will become effective on September 2, 2016.
The Good News. Effective Friday, September 2, 2016, San Diego will:
  • Allow employers to cap an employee’s total accrual of sick leave at 80 hours (80 hours is the maximum carryover);
  • Allow employers to front-load no fewer than 40 hours of sick leave at the beginning of each “benefit year” (a regular and consecutive twelve-month period, determined by the employer);
  • Clarify the enforcement process, including a civil penalty cap for employers with no previous violations. The Office of the City Treasurer has been designated as the enforcing agency.
The Implementing Ordinance language seemingly still provides for carryover of earned sick leave for up to 80 hours. The Implementing Ordinance provides: “Employers may limit an Employee’s use of Earned Sick Leave to 40 Hours in a Benefit Year, but unused, accrued Earned Sick Leave must be carried over to the following Benefit Year.” An FAQ available here states that carryover is not required if the employer uses an annual grant (frontloading). The FAQ states:
Can an employer “front load” 40 hours of sick leave rather than award it through the accrual method?
The ordinance provides only for the accrual of paid sick time at the rate of one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked. The ordinance does not provide for any other method of awarding earned sick leave; however, the Implementing Ordinance, once effective on September 2, 2106, will allow employers to front load no less than 40 hours of sick leave to an employee at the beginning of each benefit year. Front loading at least 40 hours of leave each benefit year will excuse an employer from the accrual and carryover provisions of the Ordinance.
Under this FAQ interpretation, life would be easier for San Diego employers who administer sick leave via annual grants. Carryover will not need to be tracked and annual grants can be uniform.
The Bad News. Ambiguity remains in the San Diego Ordinance, including on the issue of how employers comply in the gap period between the effective date of July 11, 2016 and the effective date of the Implementing Ordinance (September 2, 2016). Also, there are open issues on the rate of pay. On the one hand, it seems that San Diego intended to swing closer to the California paid sick law. On the other hand, San Diego appears to be at odds with the state law on the rate of sick leave pay. 
Per the Implementing Ordinance, non-exempt employees are paid “at the same regular rate of pay for the work week in which the Employee uses Earned Sick Leave.” Does “regular rate of pay” mean the “regular rate of pay” for the purposes of the overtime laws (a legally complex calculation that includes certain types of bonuses, different rates of pay, commissions, etc.), as required by California law? 
Per the FAQ, it appears San Diego’s intent is to require pay at the hourly rate in effect at the time the sick pay is used, not the more complex “regular rate of pay” used for overtime. 
The FAQ says: “Employees accrue leave by the hour, not by a specific wage rate. When used, these hours must be paid at the hourly rate the employee earns at the time the employee uses the earned sick leave.” Unfortunately for employers subject to The California Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, San Diego is at odds with how the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement has interpreted the California paid sick leave law for non-exempts. DLSE’s FAQ, available here, says the employer may either:
Calculate your regular, non-overtime rate of pay for the workweek in which you used paid sick leave, whether or not you actually worked overtime in that workweek (in general terms, this is usually done by dividing your total non-overtime compensation by the total non-overtime hours worked), or
Divide your total compensation for the previous 90 days (excluding overtime premium pay) by the total number of non-overtime hours worked in the full pay periods of the prior 90 days of employment
Even on sick leave pay for exempt employees, there is a San Diego peculiarity, although it is probably not consequential for most employers. For exempt employees, the San Diego Implementing Ordinance says to pay sick time at the “same rate and in the same manner as the Employer compensates working time.” The DLSE, in contrast, says to pay California sick leave at the rate paid for time off: “For exempt employees, paid sick leave is calculated in the same manner the employer calculates wages for other forms of paid leave time (for example, vacation pay, paid-time off.)” The DLSE’s FAQ is available here. This picayune peculiarity could, in some cases, make a difference in exempt pay.
Our practical suggestion: pay San Diego sick leave at whichever rate is more generous. For non-exempts, the state calculation will be more generous in most cases. For exempts, base salary will work in most, but not all, cases.
[1] Here are the six:
  • San Francisco (Proposition F, passed in November 2006)
  • Oakland, summary here
  • Emeryville, with paid sick time to care for guide dogs, signal dogs and service dogs, summarized here
  • Los Angeles, summary here
  • San Diego, summary here
  • Santa Monica (coming in 2017), summary here
Edited by Colleen Regan and David Kadue.