San Diego’s changing minimum wage and paid sick leave law – five updates to know

By Anthony Zaller 

on August 26, 2016

Posted in Best Practices For California Employers, California Legislation Update, Resources

The City of San Diego passed the Earned Sick Leave and Minimum Wage Ordinance which took  effect on July 11, 2016.

Now, less and two  months later, the City has approved an “Implementing Ordinance” clarifying the law’s regulations.  The Implementing Ordinance takes effect on September 2, 2016.  This Friday’s Five provides five issues that have been updated by the City of San Diego’s Implementing Ordinance:

1. The “Implementing Ordinance” is effective September 2, 2016.

The original ordinance became effective on July 11, 2016.  However, there was a lot of confusing issues that left employers concerned about how to comply with the law, and many issues that were simply not addressed by the original ordinance.  In an attempt to clarify the issues, the City passed the Implementing Ordinance clarifying some issues.  The Implementing Ordinance is effective as of September 2, 2016.

2. Employers are required to provide a written notice to employees about its paid sick leave policy by October 1, 2016.

The Implementing Ordinance requires that every employer must also provide each employee at the time of hire, or by October 1, 2016, whichever is later, written notice of the employer’s legal name and any fictitious business names, address, and telephone number and the employer’s requirements under the law.  The notice must also include information on how the employer satisfies the requirements of the law, including the employer’s method of earned sick leave accrual.  The notice must be provided to employees in English and in each employee’s primary language, if it is a language if it is spoken by at least five percent of the employees at the employer’s workplace.  Employers may provide this notice through an accessible electronic communication in lieu of a paper notice.  The City published a form notice to comply with these requirements, which can be downloaded here.

3. Under the Implementing Ordinance, employers may set a cap on the total amount of accrual at 80 hours.

Under the Implementing Ordinance, employers may cap an employee’s total accrual of earned sick leave at 80 hours.  The language under the original ordinance did not permit employers to cap the amount of accrued sick leave.  The law does not automatically set the cap for employers, but merely states that employers are allowed to set the cap.  Therefore, employers with employees that are covered by the City’s law should develop a written policy that sets this cap if desired.

4. The implementing ordinance allows employers to front load no less than 40 hours of sick leave at the beginning of each benefit year.

An employer may satisfy the accrual and carry-over provisions of the law if no less than 40 hours of earned sick leave are awarded to an employee at the beginning of each benefit year.  This front-loading of the 40 hours must be provided to all employees regardless of their status as full-time, part-time, or temporary workers.

5. Employers may set minimum increment for use, but not more than two hour increments.

Employees may determine how much earned sick leave they need to use, provided that employers may set a reasonable minimum increment for the use of earned sick leave not to exceed two hours.

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