34 | 2023 Cal-Peculiarities ©2023 Seyfarth Shaw LLP www.seyfarth.com can claim benefits at any time. The program is administered in conjunction with the state disability insurance program, with insurance payments funded by an employee payroll tax. As of July 2020, the benefit period increased to eight weeks.49 Employees can claim benefits at any time after being employed. The program is administered in conjunction with the state disability insurance program, with insurance payments funded by an employee payroll tax. The level of benefits provided to individuals in the PFL and State Disability Insurance (SDI) programs for periods of disability and family leave is either 60 or 70 percent, depending on the applicant’s income, up to a cap.50 An employer may require an employee to take up to two weeks of earned but unused vacation leave prior to the employee’s initial receipt of PFL benefits.51 Some other states’ paid family leave laws do create protected leave. In a California twist, the PFL law does NOT create leave rights. Thus, California employees eligible for PFL benefits are not entitled to job protection during the leave unless the leave is otherwise protected by law (e.g., FMLA or CFRA), and employers need not provide employee benefits during the PFL unless other statutes (e.g., FMLA or CFRA) provide for continuation of benefits. Under a broad definition of “family member,” family temporary disability wage replacement benefits are available for family leaves regarding not only a seriously ill child, spouse, parent, or domestic partner, but also a seriously ill grandparent, grandchild, sibling, and parent-in-law.52 Pay is also available for leave to bond with a minor child within one year of the birth of the child or the placement of the child in connection with foster care or adoption.53 As of 2021, PFL benefits are available for leave to participate in a qualifying exigency related to the covered active duty status or call to covered active duty status of a spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent in the U.S. Armed Forces.54 2.4.1 San Francisco Paid Parental Leave Ordinance San Francisco’s Paid Parental Leave Ordinance (SFPPLO) requires employers who regularly employ at least 20 employees worldwide to provide full pay (up to a cap) for up to eight weeks.55 Eligible employees may already receive wage replacement through the California PFL, but San Francisco employers must supplement the PFL pay, providing employees with their full pay, up to the benefits cap established by the California EDD (as described below).56 Employees need 180 days of employment with the employer to be eligible for leave. Part-time or temporary employees, to be eligible, must spend at least 40% of their total weekly hours (and eight hours per workweek) for the employer within San Francisco’s geographic boundaries. Only those employees who apply for and receive PFL wage replacement for the purpose of bonding with a new child are eligible for SFPPLO pay.57 Employers may also mandate use of up to two weeks of accrued vacation before the supplemental pay is due, and these two weeks count toward the employer’s requirements to provide supplemental pay for a total of eight weeks.58 But if an employer combines vacation and sick into a single paid time off (PTO) bank, then the employer may apply only up to two weeks of accrued, unused PTO in excess of 72 hours. The 72 hours of PTO cannot be used to satisfy the employer’s Supplemental Compensation obligation, because of the intersection of provisions of the SFPPLO and the San Francisco Paid Sick Leave Ordinance (PSLO).59 Employers also may require employees to obtain PFL benefits to be eligible for the supplemental pay.60 Employees are entitled up to a maximum benefit set by formula.61 Employers need not provide SFPPLO pay that exceeds a state cap on income (for the purposes of PFL). The maximum weekly PFL pay for claims beginning on or after January 1, 2022 is 60% or 70%, with a maximum payment of $1,540.62 SFPPLO requires employers to supplement the remainder of an employee’s compensation, up to a cap of $2,567 per week for 2022.63 Changes in
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