The San Francisco Bay Area municipality of Emeryville has passed a new sick leave and minimum wage ordinance that took effect July 1, 2015. Under the Ordinance, the minimum wage in Emeryville will increase to $12.25 per hour for small businesses (employers with 55 or fewer employees) and $14.44 for large businesses (employers with 56 or more employees). The law also provides that any employee who performs at least two hours of work in a given week in Emeryville will be entitled to paid sick
leave accrued at the rate of 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, although employers may cap the amount of sick time that can be accrued annually; for small businesses accrual of paid sick time may be capped at 48 hours per year. For large businesses it may be capped at 72 hours per year. Employees have the right to use all sick time accrued per year and carry over all accrued and unused sick time subject to the annual cap.

The law also broadens the definition of “Family Member” for requesting sick leave. Under the ordinance “Family Members” include a “designated person” if the employee is without a spouse or registered domestic partner. “Family Members” also include providing care for guide dogs, signal dogs, or service dogs of the employee or employee’s family member.

Emeryville joins San Francisco, Oakland and other cities across the nation that have enacted paid sick leave ordinances. These ordinances provide greater employee protections than State law. If you have employees in a locality with a minimum wage and/or sick leave ordinance it is essential to discuss with your legal counsel changes to employment agreements, manuals and procedures to avoid potential employee claims. Don’t get in trouble for not providing a sick day to your employee who needs to stay home to take care of “Sparky.”

The information presented is not intended to be, and does not constitute, “legal advice.” Because each situation varies, and only brief summary information is provided here, you should not use this information as a basis for action unless you have independently verified with your own counsel that it applies to your particular situation.