Enacted by the California legislature in 2014, the California Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act takes effect July 1, 2015.

Under AB1522, California’s new paid sick leave law requires:

•All employers with one or more employees who work 30 or more days per year to give each employee at least 24 hours of paid sick leave annually

•One hour of sick leave be awarded for every 30 hours worked or employers can award 24 hours of paid sick leave as a lump sum at the beginning of each year

•Employers must permit employees to roll accrued sick leave over to the next year (Employers can cap accrued sick leave at 48 hours and may limit actual annual paid sick leave use to a maximum of 24 hours)

HOW IS LEAVE EARNED?

Effective July 1, 2015, employees who have worked 30 days in California within one year are eligible to accrue paid sick leave at a rate of one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. For exempt employees, a workweek will be considered to be the lesser of 40 hours or the actual normal workweek. Workers must be allowed to roll accrued sick leave over to the next year, but employers can cap the amount of sick leave accrued at 48 hours and may limit the actual annual use of paid sick leave to a maximum of 24 hours.

Employers may, instead of using the accrual method described above, opt to provide a lump sum of 24 hours of sick leave at the beginning of each year. Provided that a new bank of 24 hours is immediately available in the new year, sick leave remaining from the end of the prior year from this lump sum bank does not need to carry over from the prior year.

Accrued paid sick time is not required to be paid out at termination unless it is part of a combined paid time off (PTO) plan. If an employee is rehired within a year, however, the previous paid sick leave balance must be restored