Earlier this week, the California Senate Labor, Public Employment, and Retirement Committee approved SB 616. This bill now moves on for consideration by the Senate appropriations committee. SB 616, sponsored by California State Senator Lena Gonzalez from Los Angeles County, if enacted in its current form, would more than double mandatory paid sick leave available for California employees, starting next year.

Increased Paid Sick Leave in California

Currently, California employees are entitled to three days or twenty-four hours of paid sick leave that must be available to the employee to use by the completion of the employee’s 120th calendar day of employment. SB 616 would substantially increase the amount of paid sick leave available annually to California employees to seven (7) days or fifty-six (56) hours.

More specifically, if enacted in its current form, SB 616 would modify the required paid sick leave accrual method to require that California employees have no less than 56 hours of accrued sick leave or paid time off by the 280th calendar day of employment or each calendar year, beginning January 1, 2024.

Higher Paid Sick Leave Accrual Cap

Under existing law, a California employer generally has no obligation to allow an employee’s total accrual of paid sick leave to exceed 48 hours or 6 days. In other words, the paid sick leave bank can be capped at 48 hours. SB 616 would more than double the minimum accrual cap for paid sick leave in California from 48 hours or 6 days, to 112 hours or 14 days.

Conclusion

This is one of many bills working its way through the California Legislature that the California Chamber of Commerce has labeled as job-killer bills. While CDF cannot predict which bills will actually pass through the legislature and be signed by Governor Newsom, there is a strong push to increase sick leave benefits, and we suspect that SB 616 is one of the bills that is likely to pass. California employers should pay close attention to this progress of SB 616 over the next few months.