The Down and Dirty Breakdown of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act—CLARIFICATION
Late last night, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act was signed into law. Honestly, I could write a five-page description of everything that this law provides and does not provide, but that’s not how I roll, and I think you want to read about this in plain English.
So, here we go, in bullet point format for those who think in outline form like me:
Deadline for compliance: April 2, 2020
Employee Eligibility: employees who have worked for the employer for at least 30 calendar days
Applicability: employers with less than 500 employees, i.e., small and medium-sized employers
Bases and amounts of Leave:
Family. 12 weeks – 10 of them paid family for school and childcare-related COVID-19 absences if employee cannot work (excludes telework)
First 10 days can be unpaid but employee can use any other available paid time off that they have
Rate if taking care of a family member who is in quarantine, or a child whose school or daycare is closed: 2/3 of employee’s regular pay, at least
Sick. 80 hours of paid coronavirus-related sick pay if employee has been told to quarantine by the government or a doctor because of coronavirus, shows symptoms, or caring for a family member who is doing the same OR for child care when child care is no longer available because of coronavirus
Note: If you can telework, you are not sick. That is, paid sick leave is available if employee cannot work or telework because of a qualifying coronavirus-related absence
This is in addition any other state-mandated paid sick leave. See, for example, New York City, California, Maryland, Montgomery County, MD, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, etc.
Note: employers, you can always pay more, i.e., you can be more generous than the law requires
What it is NOT for:
Self-quarantine or caring for a family member who is sick or quarantined
Cap:
$200/day or $10K all together for family leave
$511/day and $5,110 all together for sick leave for the employee (for illness or quarantine) and $200/day and $2K all together for any other coronavirus-qualifying reason (i.e., school closure)
Tax credits available:
100% entitlement to employers providing these benefits taken against quarterly social security payments
for self-employed people, this is limited
Job protection if there is still a job to go back to.
Benefits:
immediate relief for millions of employees
allows the U.S. Department Of Labor to issue regulations that exempt small employers (with less than 50 employees) to apply paid sick days
Drawbacks:
financial problems for business who cannot afford to pay
excludes employers of health care employees or emergency responders to exclude such employees from coverage
Gaps:
Cash flow problems for employers who cannot afford this.
What other gaps can you think of?