Accounting & Bookkeeping & Small Business Forum

[Richard Noot]

San Francisco Sick Leave Law
Larger cities such as San Francisco are often bellwethers of change at a state or national level. A new ordinance in San Francisco might have future implications elsewhere.

Effective Feb. 5, 2007, all businesses must provide paid sick leave for their employees working within the city and the county of San Francisco under the San Francisco Sick Leave Ordinance that was passed by voters in November 2006. Here are the highlights of the ordinance:

A covered employee is defined as "any person who is employed within the geographic boundaries" of San Francisco, which means that regardless of where the employer's headquarters may be located, the employer must provide paid sick leave to all employees who work in the city and county of San Francisco.
Paid sick leave begins to accrue on Feb. 5, 2007, or, for employees hired after that, 90 calendar days after their first day of work.
The ordinance is not limited to nonexempt employees.
The ordinance includes exempt employees (including supervisors and managers); full-time, part-time, and temporary employees; and participants in a Welfare to Work Program (i.e., any public assistance program administered by the Human Services Agency).
Employees accrue 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work (accrual rate 1 hour leave/30 hours worked = 0.03333).
Paid sick leave shall accrue only in hour-unit increments—not in fractions or prorated amounts.
At businesses with fewer than 10 employees, there is a cap of 40 hours of accrued paid sick leave per employee.
At businesses with 10 or more employees, the cap is 72 hours per employee.
The sick leave must carry over from year to year but is subject to the applicable accrual caps (40 hours or 72 hours total).
Employers that already provide a sufficient paid leave policy that employees can use for the same purpose are not required to provide additional paid sick leave.
Employers must post a notice about the sick leave law at the job site.
The ordinance does not preempt or limit other laws that provide for greater accrual of sick leave.
Employers must retain records of hours worked and sick leave taken for four years.
For more information, contact the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement at (415) 554-6271.
Guidance has not yet been provided on the tracking of hours for exempt management employees or for seasonal businesses or temporary agency workers.
Amount of Paid Sick Leave
The following examples show how much sick leave employees would accrue:

A full-time employee (52 weeks/year x 40 hours/week) would work 2,080 hours and accrue 69 hours/year of paid sick leave.
In a small business, an employee would reach the 40-hour cap after working 1,200 hours. For a full-time employee, this would take 30 weeks.
For all other businesses, an employee would reach the 72-hour cap after working 2,160 hours, or 54 weeks for a full-time employee.

[Ken]

Thanks for the info :D