§ 12W.3. ACCRUAL OF PAID SICK LEAVE.

(a) For employees working for an employer on or before the operative date of this Chapter, paid sick leave shall begin to accrue as of the operative date of this Chapter. For employees hired by an employer after the operative date of this Chapter but before January 1, 2017, paid sick leave shall begin to accrue 90 days after the commencement of employment with the employer, or on January 1, 2017, whichever date is earlier. For employees hired on or after January 1, 2017, paid sick leave shall begin to accrue on commencement of employment with the employer.

(b) For every 30 hours worked after paid sick leave begins to accrue for an employee, the employee shall accrue one hour of paid sick leave. Paid sick leave shall accrue only in hour-unit increments; there shall be no accrual of a fraction of an hour of paid sick leave.

(c) An employer may, in the employer’s discretion, make available to an employee a lump sum of paid sick leave at the beginning of each year of employment, calendar year, or other 12-month period (an “upfront allocation”). In such cases, the Agency shall treat the upfront allocation as an advance on paid sick leave to be accrued under this Section 12W.3; that is, accrual of paid sick leave under this Section would temporarily halt and the employee would not continue to accrue paid sick leave until after the employee has worked the number of hours necessary to have accrued the upfront allocation amount, at which point the employee would then resume accruing paid sick leave under this Section. This subsection (c) shall not be construed to prevent an employer, in the employer’s discretion, from advancing paid sick leave to an employee at other times, and shall not be construed to limit the amount of paid sick leave that may be advanced to an employee. Any advance of paid sick leave shall affect the employee’s accrual of paid sick leave under this Section 12W.3 as described in this subsection (c). Any advance of paid sick leave shall occur pursuant to an employer’s written policy or. absent an applicable written policy, shall be documented in writing to the affected employee.

(d) For employees of small businesses, there shall be a cap of 40 hours of accrued paid sick leave. For employees of other employers, there shall be a cap of 72 hours of accrued paid sick leave. Accrued paid sick leave for employees carries over from year to year (whether calendar year or fiscal year), but is limited to the aforementioned caps.

(e) If an employer has a paid leave policy, such as a paid time off policy, that makes available to employees an amount of paid leave that may be used for the same purposes as paid sick leave under this Chapter and that is sufficient to meet the requirements for accrued paid sick leave as stated in subsections (a)-(c), the employer is not required to provide additional paid sick leave.

(f) On the same written notice that an employer is required to provide under Section 246(h) of the California Labor Code, an employer shall set forth the amount of paid sick leave that is available to the employee under this Section 12W.3, or paid time off an employer provides in lieu of sick leave. If an employer provides unlimited paid sick leave or unlimited paid time off to an employee, the employer may satisfy this subsection by indicating on the notice or the employee’s itemized wage statement “unlimited.” This subsection (f) shall apply only to employers that are required by state law to provide such notice to employees regarding paid sick leave available under state law.

(g) An employer is not required to provide financial or other reimbursement to an employee upon the employee’s termination, resignation, retirement, or other separation from employment, for accrued paid sick leave that the employee has not used. But if an employee separates from an employer for any reason and is rehired by the employer within one year from the date of separation, previously accrued and unused paid sick leave shall be reinstated. The employee shall be entitled to use the previously accrued and unused paid sick leave and to accrue additional paid sick leave upon rehiring. This subsection (g) shall not apply if and to the extent that, upon the employee’s separation from employment, the employee received cash compensation for previously accrued and unused paid sick leave.

(h) For the purposes of this Chapter, an employer shall calculate paid sick leave using any of the following calculations:

(1) Paid sick leave for nonexempt employees shall be calculated in the same manner as the regular rate of pay for the workweek in which the employee uses paid sick leave, whether or not the employee actually works overtime in that workweek.

(2) Paid sick leave for nonexempt employees shall be calculated by dividing the employee’s total wages, not including overtime premium pay, by the employee’s total hours worked in the full pay periods of the prior 90 days of employment.

(3) Paid sick leave for exempt employees shall be calculated in the same manner as the employer calculates wages for other forms of paid leave time.

(4) In no circumstance may paid sick leave be provided at less than the minimum wage rate required by the Minimum Wage Ordinance, Administrative Code Chapter 12R.

(Added by Proposition F, 11/7/2006; amended by , 6/7/2016)