Paid sick leave.

(1) Under existing law, except as specified, an employee who works in California for 30 or more days within a year from the commencement of employment is entitled to paid sick days for certain purposes, to be accrued at a rate of no less than one hour for every 30 hours worked, and to be available for use beginning on the 90th day of employment. Existing law authorizes an employer to use a different accrual method as long as an employee has no less than 24 hours of accrued sick leave or paid time off by the 120th calendar day of employment or each calendar year, or in each 12-month period. Existing law also provides that an employer may satisfy the accrual requirements by providing not less than 24 hours or 3 days of paid sick leave that is available to the employee to use by the completion of the employee's 120th calendar day of employment. Under existing law, an employer has no obligation under these provisions to allow an employee's total accrual of paid sick leave to exceed 48 hours or 6 days, provided that an employee's rights to accrue and use paid sick leave are not otherwise limited, as specified. Under existing law, sick leave carries over to the following year of employment, but an employer may limit the use of the carryover amount, in each year of employment, calendar year, or 12-month period, to 24 hours or 3 days. This bill would modify the employer's alternate sick leave accrual method to require that an employee have no less than 40 hours of accrued sick leave or paid time off by the 200th calendar day of employment or each calendar year, or in each 12-month period. The bill would modify that satisfaction provision to authorize an employer to satisfy accrual requirements by providing not less than 40 hours or 5 days of paid sick leave that is available to the employee to use by the completion of the employee's 200th calendar day of employment. The bill would also provide that an employer is under no obligation to allow an employee's total accrual of paid sick leave to exceed 80 hours or 10 days, as specified. The bill would raise the employer's authorized limitation on the employee's use of carryover sick leave to 40 hours or 5 days. The bill would expand the purposes for which paid sick days are required to be provided to include purposes related to the employee's donation of bone marrow or an organ and the closure, due to a public health emergency, of the employee's place of business or of the employee's child's school or childcare. (2) Existing law provides that providers of in-home supportive services accrue sick leave in accordance with a schedule that is based on the timeline for state minimum wage increases, up to a maximum of 24 hours or 3 days when the minimum wage reaches $15 per hour. This bill would amend the schedule for in-home supportive services providers to increase the sick leave accrual maximum to 40 hours or 5 days in each year of employment, beginning January 1, 2026. (3) Existing law establishes exemptions from the above paid sick days provisions by defining "employee" to exclude, among others, an employee covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement if the agreement expressly provides for the wages, hours of work, and working conditions of employees, and expressly provides for paid sick days or a paid leave or paid time off policy that permits the use of sick days for those employees, final and binding arbitration of disputes concerning the application of its paid sick days provisions, premium wage rates for all overtime hours worked, and regular hourly rate of pay of not less than 30% more than the state minimum wage rate. This bill would delete the requirement, for purposes of the exemption, that the collective bargaining agreement expressly provide for paid sick days or a paid leave or paid time off policy and would require instead that the agreement, with regard to sick leave, expressly permit the use of at least 5 sick days for covered employees, each of which are paid at the regular hourly rate of pay. (4) Existing law requires an employer to keep records for three years documenting the hours worked and paid sick days accrued and used by an employee and to make those records available to the Labor Commissioner upon request. Existing law provides that the employer has no obligation to inquire into or record the purposes for which an employee uses sick leave or paid time off. This bill would prohibit an employer from compelling an employee to provide documentation verifying use of their first 40 hours, or 5 days, of paid leave or paid time off. (5) Existing law provides that it establishes minimum requirements pertaining to paid sick days and does not preempt, limit, or otherwise affect the applicability of any other law, regulation, requirement, policy, or standard that provides for greater accrual or use by employees of sick days, whether paid or unpaid, or that extends other protections to an employee. This bill would provide that certain provisions of existing law relating to the provision and use of paid sick days, including certain provisions amended by the bill, preempt any local ordinance to the contrary, including provisions relating to the calculation of paid sick leave, advance notification, payment, the purposes for which paid sick leave must be provided, employer recordkeeping, and employee documentation.