Family leave for California state workers could be restored in Biden’s COVID-19 proposal

President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief proposal would give workers 14 weeks of paid sick and family leave, according to an outline of the $1.9 trillion spending package his administration provided.

Many California state workers relied last year on a similar leave program Congress approved in the spring, known as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. That program, which provided two weeks of paid sick leave and 10 weeks of partially paid family leave for people affected by COVID-19, expired Dec. 31.

Biden’s proposal would create a similar but expanded program.

It would provide up to $1,400 per week instead of the previous program’s $200 per day ($1,000 for a five-day workweek) for people earning up to $73,000 per year.

The proposal would make the benefits available to parents who have to take care of a child or loved one when their schools or day care centers are closed, those who have COVID-19 symptoms or who are taking care of people with symptoms, those quarantining after an exposure, and people who need to take time off to get vaccinated.

In December, Congress said employers could extend last year’s benefits through March if they wanted to and could receive tax credits to cover costs. California state government didn’t immediately commit to extending the benefits for state workers. Biden’s proposal would make the benefits mandatory.

Biden has said he plans to make the relief proposal a top priority after he is sworn in on Wednesday. He will be working with Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate.

The administration’s broad outline says it would close some loopholes for small and large private companies. It doesn’t say whether the new program would, like last year’s leave expansion, allow public employers to deny the leave to emergency responders like prison guards and highway patrol officers.

Several California state departments exempted their employees from the expanded leave last year, including the corrections department, the Department of State Hospitals and California Highway Patrol.

The state Legislature later passed its own relief package with similar benefits for those excluded workers in Assembly Bill 1867. The bill said that if the Families First Coronavirus Response Act were extended, the extra benefits for emergency responders would also be extended. It’s not clear whether Assembly Bill 1867’s benefits would be restored if Biden’s leave program passes.