The $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill, passed by Congress and signed into law on Dec. 27, includes a number of provisions that affect employers and their workers in terms of paid sick leave and Emergency Family and Medical Leave Act provisions. The legislation also boosts unemployment benefits to out-of-work Americans, as well as reopening and expanding the Paycheck Protection Program that was introduced in March as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Paid sick and family medical leave
The new law did not extend the obligation for employers to provide emergency paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave beyond Dec. 31, 2020, instead making it voluntary after that date.
From Jan. 1, employers can continue receiving tax credits if they provide emergency paid sick leave (EPSL) and emergency family medical leave (EFML) to employees for COVID19-related purposes through March 31. Here are the caveats:
- Tax credits will be available for leave granted to employees who did not already exhaust 80 hours of EPSL or 12 weeks of EFML. For example, if a worker who was entitled to 80 hours of EPSL last year used 50 of those hours, they’d have 30 hours left to use between January 1 and March 31 this year.
- Employers must protect the job of any employee that is granted EPSL or EFML.
Other provisions
The legislation extends some CARES Act unemployment programs:
Unemployment benefits – The new law restores the federal increase for all unemployment benefits, which adds $300 to each week of benefits for up to 11 weeks through March 13.
Gig worker unemployment benefits extended – The law also extends the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, which covers independent contractors and gig workers who would usually not be eligible for unemployment insurance payments.
This program (originally created by the CARES Act) is also extended to March 14, and then a three-week phase-out period will run until April 5.
The law increases the number of weeks gig workers are eligible for unemployment benefits by 11 additional weeks, on top of the 39 weeks under the original program.
Extra weeks for those whose benefits ran out – The Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program, which provides 11 additional weeks of unemployment insurance benefits to individuals who use up all of their state unemployment benefits, will be extended until March 14.
The law increases the number of benefit weeks to 24, from 13 under the original version of the program. After March 14, this program will be phased out over three weeks until April 5.