Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed legislation that guarantees paid sick leave for all private-sector workers across every industry in the state.
Under Assembly Bill 1522, authored by State Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), employees who have worked part time, temporary or seasonally for a company for at least 30 days will earn a minimum of one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, and are guaranteed to be able to use at least three days worth of paid leave to take care of themselves or a family member should they fall ill. They can begin using the sick time after the 90th day of employment.
The legislation becomes effective July 1, 2015, and employers have until then to begin implementing the law.
“With Gov. Brown’s signing of AB1522 . . . we made history in California. We become the first state in the nation to guarantee paid sick days for every single private sector worker in the state—no matter what industry they work in, no matter if they are part time or seasonal, and regardless of the size of their employer,” Gonzalez said. “This means more than 6.5 million more workers in this state will be able to take up to three days off when they or their child is sick without fearing the loss of income, hours or their job.”
Prior to approval of the legislation, a study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research showed that as many as 7 million workers or about 44 percent of private sector workers do not have access to paid sick leave.
In addition to California, five other states are considering similar legislation—Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland and Vermont.
Four California cities are also in the process of pushing for paid sick days in excess of three days—Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego and San Jose.
San Francisco already mandates paid sick days for workers.
While the new paid sick days will not follow workers from employer to employer, nor can a employee get paid for them, if an individual leaves a company and comes back within the same year, accrued sick days will be reinstated.
