California workers lose paid COVID sick leave. What happens now?
Ana Maria Gonzalez doesn’t know what she would have done if she didn’t have California’s COVID-19 paid sick leave, which expired at the end of September.
A school on Sept. 2 informed Gonzalez that her four-year-old son came in close contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. That meant Gonzalez had to leave work, pick her son up and care for him and his older brother while they were in self-quarantine until Sept. 10.
Because Gonzalez started her job as a speech pathologist assistant for a school district in May, she said she didn’t know if she qualified for other leave programs. Not using the state’s COVID paid sick leave meant she could have lost out on about $1,200 in income, she said.
“I was calm. I wasn’t frustrated,” said Gonzalez, 28 in Los Angeles. “I wasn’t upset, because I knew I was going to get those 10 days paid, and I wasn’t going to struggle to worry about paying rent, paying my car loan, paying my phone bills.”
Gonzalez and millions of workers in California won’t have that benefit now. The state’s supplemental paid sick leave — to recover from the coronavirus or to care for someone who is in self-isolation or self-quarantine — ended Sept. 30, even as California is still adding thousands of cases every day due to a highly infectious delta variant.
No legislation was proposed to extend the leave, and the Legislature has adjourned for the year. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office in a statement said it had “nothing further to add” regarding whether it will do anything to extend the leave.
Business advocates had asked Newsom not to extend the supplemental leave, continuing their push against the policy.
In an Aug. 25 letter to legislators, the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations noted that federal tax credits were about to end, meaning employers would have to bear the entire cost of providing paid sick leave.
“Employers cannot continue to subsidize the state’s response to this virus,” the organizations wrote.
Some cities and counties, such as Los Angeles and Oakland, have their own ordinances. But worker advocates say ending the statewide leave program could push more people to come to work sick, spreading the virus.
“It’s unthinkable they would let this leave expire and risk more people going to work sick and the spread it’s going to cause,” said Katherine Wutchiett, an attorney at Legal Aid at Work. “When you take into effect the public health and the needless pain and suffering, it’s a serious crisis.”
Paid leave in California
California passed its supplemental COVID-19 paid sick leave in March, months after the federal program expired at the end of 2020. Those working for businesses with more than 25 employees qualified for the leave.
The state tied the end of the program to Sept. 30, when the federal tax credits for offering the leave would run out. The hope was that the pandemic would wind down by now as the state ramped up its vaccine rollout.
But the delta variant and the rise in the number of breakthrough cases complicated matters, said Jenya Cassidy, director of the California Work & Family Coalition.
Without the state’s supplemental program, California workers can still take three days of paid sick leave a year. They can also take up to eight weeks of paid leave to care for a seriously ill family member.
Still, those leaves are limited in their ability to help workers during the pandemic, Cassidy said. For instance, the paid family leave doesn’t cover caring for children who may not be ill but had to stay home because they had close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID.
It could also take weeks for families to receive income through the state’s paid family leave, as they have to apply through the Employment Development Department, Wutchiett said. The department has infamously been known for its delays and backlogs.
Advocates like Jared Make, vice president of A Better Balance which pushes for more paid leave across the nation, also cite research that has shown COVID sick leave has reduced the transmission of the virus.
“There are tremendous savings attached to paid sick leave laws, because it’s extremely disruptive when there’s an outbreak at your workplace,” Make said.
Why businesses opposed paid COVID leave
If the state is to extend the program, it should offer tax credits to employers, said John Kabateck, California state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, an advocacy organization representing small businesses.
“If the state is truly flush with money ...if politicians believe this is enough of a mandate to keep on employers... why wouldn’t they pay for it out of government cash registers instead of fragile, struggling employers?” Kabateck said, noting California’s $76 billion surplus.
Kabateck and others also said workers can take time off to recover, using programs such as disability insurance or workers’ compensation. Workers exposed to COVID at their workplace and in self-quarantine can also receive pay under the state’s COVID-19 workplace safety standard.
Ending the paid leave will also remove an incentive for workers to remain unvaccinated, CalChamber and other organizations wrote in their letter.
Absent an executive order from Newsom, businesses will get their wish. Legislators who want to restore the leave nevertheless are vowing to try again. They will have to wait until they reconvene in January to send a bill to the governor.
“I’m disappointed we don’t have a bill to extend paid leave to support workers during the pandemic,” Assemblyman Evan Low, D-Campbell, tweeted Sept. 8. “But we will not stop trying.”
This story was originally published October 1, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
