©2023 Seyfarth Shaw LLP www.seyfarth.com 2023 Cal-Peculiarities | 45 Thus, corporate officers and executives may be personally liable under the Los Angeles ordinance. Employees can use up to 48 hours of PSL in “each year of employment, calendar year or 12-month period.” Unused PSL must carry over to the following year of employment, but may be capped at 72 hours. Employers may set a higher cap or no cap. Employers can choose to either (1) “frontload” PSL by providing the entire 48 hours to an employee at the beginning of each year or (2) have PSL accrue at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked. The Los Angeles ordinance differs from state law, which provides that if an employer front-loads PSL, then the unused PSL does not carry over, and the unused balance is simply replaced by the new grant. By contrast, Los Angeles requires that employers carry over from year to year up to at least 72 hours. So while a Los Angeles employee can use only 48 hours of sick pay in a year, the employee can carry over 72 hours of PSL (or more, if the employer allows it). The Los Angeles ordinance covers family members as defined in the state PSL, while adding “any individual related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.”172 Los Angeles is one of the cities that expanded existing covered reasons for taking general PSL to include specific Covid-related reasons.173 Effective April 10, 2020, the City of Los Angeles enacted a new supplemental PSL mandate for Covid-19. This mandate applied to employers with (a) 500 or more employees in Los Angeles or (b) 2,000 employees nationwide (and any number in Los Angeles). The mandate originally covered employees who worked in the city for the same employer between February 3, 2020 and March 4, 2020, but regulations revised in June 2021 explained that the ordinance covered employees who have worked for the same employer for 60 days.174 The city’s supplemental Covid-19 PSL mandate expired on February 15, 2023.175 Los Angeles (City)- Living Wage Ordinance. With some exceptions, Los Angeles’ Living Wage Ordinance (LWO) applies to city contractors, and includes specific provisions for employees servicing airports.176 See § 7.2.3 for a discussion of the wage requirements. The LWO also requires city contractors to provide their employees with at least 96 hours of compensated time off and 80 hours of uncompensated hours off.177 These allotments are similar to West Hollywood’s PSL mandate discussed below. Employees are eligible to use their accrued paid compensated time off after the first 90 days of employment, or consistent with the employer’s policies, whichever is sooner.178 Compensated time off can be used for sick leave, vacation, or personal necessity. This time must be paid at an employee’s regular rate at the time the compensated time off is used.179 As in West Hollywood, under the LWO, unused accrued compensated time off will carry over until the time off reaches a maximum of 192 hours, unless the employer’s established policy is more generous.180 Once an employee reaches the maximum accrued compensated time off, an employer must provide a cash payout once every 30 days for accrued compensated time off over the maximum.181 Employers can provide the option of cashing out any portion of accrued compensated time off, but cannot require employees to cash out any accrued compensated time off.182 Additionally, the LWO requires employers to permit full-time employees to take at least 80 additional hours per year of uncompensated time off and non full-time employees to take a proportionate incremental number of hours of uncompensated time off each year.183 Uncompensated time off can be used for sick leave for the employee or for a family member’s illness when the employee has exhausted compensated time off. This time off is available for use after the first 90 days of employment or consistent with the employer’s policies, whichever is sooner.184 Again mirroring West Hollywood’s PSL ordinance, unused, accrued uncompensated time off will carry over until the time off reaches a maximum of 80 hours, unless the employer’s established policy is more generous.185 There are other similarities between the two ordinances, including their respective silence regarding payout of unused accrued time off at termination.
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