Pop Quiz: Family Leave and Sick Leave Edition

False. While premiums must be paid beginning January 1, 2019, the leave itself is not available until January 1, 2020. (Unpaid family leave, however, may nevertheless be available under the federal Family Medical Leave Act.)

True. While some question whether local elected officials are covered, the Employment Security Department (ESD), which enforces the Paid Family Leave Act, takes the position that all elected officials are covered under the Act. Thus, councilmembers, mayors, commissioners, and other elected officials are covered.

Probably false. Although the initial guidance required reporting 40 hours per week for salaried officials, ESD recently offered the new guidance: “When a salaried employee is not a full-time salaried employee, we are asking that the employer make a good faith estimate on the hours actually worked. If their hours are tracked, please report the actual number of hours worked.”

False.  According to advice now provided by the ESD Help Desk, since the new contract was not signed until after October 19, 2017, even though its contract’s provisions were made retroactive to the date immediately following the previous 2016 contract’s expiration date, for purposes of Paid Family and Medical Leave Act,  premiums must paid.
 
The above answer corrects the answer previously given in an update on January 16, after the blog was published on January 15. The previous answer was based upon information provided by Employment Security, but that information is no longer correct and thus the answer to this question is changed.  We apologize for the confusion.

False. Since the payments were made in January 2019, the Employment Security Department advises that the “wages and hours will be reported when they are paid, not when they [were] earned. This means hours worked in December, but paid in January, will be reported as part of the first quarter 2019 wages/hours.” 

Editor's note: This answer was changed on January 16, 2019, the day after this article's initial publication.

Partially yes, partially no. With a very few exceptions, employees are required to pay premiums. The number of employees working for a jurisdiction does not determine whether payments are required to be paid by employees. However, if a jurisdiction has fewer than 50 employees, the district is not required to pay the employer share of the premiums.

True. The Paid Family Leave Act provides for grants of up to $3,000 to small employers to help cover their costs of hiring temporary employees. For a jurisdiction to be eligible, it must, on average, have fewer than 50 employees, an employee in question must be on leave for seven or more days, and the jurisdiction must pay the employee portion of the premiums even though, because of its size, it is not required to do so. Grants can be issued 10 times per year to a single employer.

Yes. Gross wages include, but are not limited to, salary or hourly wages, sick leave, vacation leave, holiday pay, bereavement leave, paid time off, bonuses, and the cash value of meals and lodging when given as compensation.

Yes. To be eligible for paid sick leave, a new employee must have worked for at least 90 days. Additionally, paid sick leave accrues at the rate of one hour for each 40 hours worked. After three weeks, Alice would have only accrued three hours of sick leave and, of course, since she had not yet worked the requisite 90 days, she would not be eligible for paid sick leave.

No. While paid sick leave is available to allow an employee to miss work to provide care for a family member who needs medical care, the leave is not available for the care of all family members. Sick leave may be taken to care for children, parents, a spouse, a registered domestic partners, grandparents, grandchildren or siblings. Uncles (and aunts) are not included in the list of relatives.