Changes are coming to California’s Kin Care Leave law, effective Jan. 1, 2016, to align it more closely with California’s Paid Sick Leave law in two significant respects: the definition of “kin” and the purposes for which this leave can be used. The Kin Care Leave law generally requires that employers allow employees to use up to half of their accrued and available paid sick leave (or paid time off (PTO) if vacation and sick leave are combined) to care for a “family member,” as defined in the law. The Paid Sick Leave law, enacted after the Kin Care Leave law, requires that employers provide a minimum of 24 hours (or 3 days) of paid sick leave pursuant to the statute, all of which can be used for the care of a “family member,” as defined in that law. Employers must track the use of Paid Sick Leave and Kin Care Leave, which currently can be confusing because the laws have different definitions of “family member” and permit use of leave time for different reasons.
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