President Trump signed H.R.6201 Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) on March 18, 2020, to provide some much-needed financial aid to employees who are unable to work due to COVID-19. Here are the details.
Yes! All employers covered by the FFCRA must post this required notice in a conspicuous place and/or share it via email or intranet to inform employees of this Act. It must be hung and/or shared by April 1, 2020, and remain in a conspicuous place through the end of 2020.
Eligible employees can receive up to 12 paid weeks of leave:
Anyone who works for a company with 1-499 employees may be eligible for this emergency aid if they have no telework option.
Regular full-time employees who are using Emergency Paid Sick Leave for their own condition will make their regular wages for up to 10 days of Emergency Paid Sick Leave, up to a maximum amount of $511 per day and $5,110 in aggregate. Employees caring for someone else will be capped at $200 per day and $2,000 in aggregate.
Part-time employees will make the equivalent of the average number of hours over the course of two weeks. Part-time employees who work variable hours will be determined based on a calculation.
While paid Emergency Family Medical Leave does not kick in until after the first 10 days of being on leave, Paid Sick Leave provides a buffer for those first two weeks. Emergency Family Medical Leave will then be paid at 2/3 of an employee’s regular rate of pay, capping at $200 a day, with an aggregate total of $10,000.
Yes! Independent Contractors and gig workers can submit for tax credits on their income taxes.
There is no minimum amount of time an employee must have been working for the employer to be eligible for the emergency paid sick leave.
To be eligible for the emergency family medical leave, employees must have been employed for at least 30 days.
No! Employees may only take this leave if they are unable to telework for their employer. Any employees with the option to work remotely will be deemed ineligible for both emergency paid sick and emergency family medical leave.
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act goes into effect on April 1, 2020. It will remain in place until the end of 2020 and will not carry over.
It does not appear so, as the Secretary of Labor did not amend the Act to include this prior to its enactment.
Emergency sick leave may be eligible for employees who are unable to work due to being quarantined (with or without symptoms) or for employees who must care for someone under quarantine. The subsequent family medical is available to employees who must care for a child under the age of 18 due to school or daycare closing, per the public health emergency.
This Act is to provide ongoing wages to employees to keep them afloat during the outbreak of the Coronavirus and will require some cash flow, as employers will pay employees and then be reimbursed via tax credits. Companies with fewer than 50 employees may be exempt from the provision if paying ongoing wages will jeopardize the viability of their business.
Healthcare providers and emergency responders may also elect to exclude their employees from application of this emergency leave.
Your company will pay the employee their appropriate wages, per the leave, and will then apply for a tax credit when submitting payroll taxes. The credit will be applied against the employer portion of Social Security taxes. Qualified leave will be reimbursed 100%.
Tax credits do not have to submitted only towards the employee(s) taking leave; credits can be attributed towards payroll taxes paid for all employees.
No, this leave is job-protected for companies with 25 or more employees. However, companies with fewer than 25 employees do not have to hold your position if it no longer exists due to the public health crisis during the period of leave.
They must provide their employer with notice of leave as is practicable.
No! There is no requirement to exhaust other forms of leave before taking emergency paid sick and/or emergency family medical leave.
While this leave may not apply where layoffs have already occurred, there may be other implications of layoffs to consider. Employers should try to navigate the best course of action for each employee, where possible.
For any additional questions regarding emergency paid sick leave and emergency family medical leave, please contact our HR experts at HR@stratus.hr.
Are your employees unable to work due to Coronavirus? They may be eligible for up to 12 weeks of paid leave.
Download this FMLA application and email it to FMLA@stratus.hr to apply.
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