A federal emergency relief legislation package now gives many workers paid leave if they need to take time off work because of the coronavirus.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday night signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which ensures paid leave for those who are infected or caring for a family member with COVID-19. Employers have until April 2 to create policies and comply with the law.

The law, which is more than 100 pages and went through the entire legislative and executive process in just five days, mandates that employers with fewer than 500 employees as well as public entities regardless of size must provide paid sick leave and emergency family leave under certain circumstances related to the coronavirus.

There are two parts of the law — emergency paid sick leave and paid sick leave.

Emergency paid sick leave:

In what amounts to the first time the federal government has required paid sick leave, covered employers must provide up to 80 hours (for full-time/proportional for part-time) of paid sick leave to any employee, regardless of the length of employment, for a qualifying emergency related to COVID-19. Qualifying emergencies include situations where an employee is unable to work or telework because:

• the employee is subjected to a government-mandated quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19;
• the employee has been instructed by a health care provider to self-quarantine because of concerns related to the virus;
• the employee is experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus and seeking a medical diagnosis;
• the employee is caring for a child because the school or place of care has been closed or the child care provider is unavailable because of COVID-19 precautions; or
• the employee is experiencing “any other substantially similar condition specified by the secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the secretary of the Treasury and the secretary of labor.”

The paid portion caps at $511 per day ($5,110 aggregate) when sick leave is used for the first three reasons and $200 per day ($2,000 in the aggregate) when used for reasons No. 4 or No. 5.

There are certain opt-out provisions for businesses with fewer than 50 employees and certain health care providers. Employers cannot require an employee to use other paid leave before using the emergency sick leave.

Paid sick leave:

For employees who have worked for a qualifying employer for at least 30 calendar days, employers must provide leave — between April 2 and Dec. 31 — under the new law for a “qualifying need related to a public health emergency” with respect to COVID-19.

To qualify, the employee must be “unable to work [or telework] due to a need for leave to care for the son or daughter of such employee if the school or place of care has been closed or the child care provider of such son or daughter is unavailable due to a public health emergency.”

A public health emergency has been defined as an emergency with respect to COVID-19 declared by a federal, state or local authority.

The law applies to employers with fewer than 500 employees, with exemptions for health care and employers with 50 or fewer employees under certain circumstances.

The law gets complicated as it relates to paying for the time off. During the first 10 days of the public health emergency, FMLA leave is unpaid, although employees can use the emergency paid sick leave provision for this time off or the employee can use accrued paid time off. Importantly, the remaining balance of leave will be paid for up to 12 workweeks at a rate of pay that is “at least two-thirds of the regular rate” the employee would have earned under the employee’s customary work schedule. The amount paid cannot exceed $200 a day or $10,000 total.

The employer will receive a refund for the payments through tax credits outlined in the law.

As employers navigate these complex changes in quick order, they can visit dol.gov or follow fmlainsights.com where updates are regularly posted.