One of the least well-known rights that California employees have is the right to paid sick leave. Most people know that state and federal law says that most employees have a right to medical leave, meaning they cannot be fired for having to take a break from work to deal with personal or family medical situations (up to certain time limits), but California goes a step further. Beginning in 2015, California became only the second state in the nation to require employers to not only give employees time off for medical leave but to pay those employees for their sick leave, up to three days a year.

Your Rights to Paid Sick Leave in California

Paid sick leave rights are available to both full-time and part-time employees in California, although you will need to work at the company for a period of time for your full rights to three days of paid sick leave to accrue.

The paid sick leave you are entitled to will accrue in terms of hours, not days. Basically, you get one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work at the company. Thus if you work 30 hours a week, then, after 8 weeks, you will have 8 hours of paid sick leave you are do. If you work 60 hours a week, you will earn those 8 hours within four weeks.

To earn your full right to three full days of sick leave (24 hours, based on an 8-hour work day), you will thus need to work a total of 720 hours (or 18 40-hour workweeks). Obviously, as you use paid sick leave hours, your number of entitled hours will go down, and you will need to work more hours to bring it back up to your full three days.

In addition, you must have worked at the company for at least 90 days before exercising your right to paid sick leave days.

If your company is failing to honor your right to paid sick leave either under the law or pursuant to an employment agreement – or if your company is failing to honor your right to unpaid family medical leave – you should speak with a California employment attorney regarding your legal options for recovery.  

Contact a Pasadena Employment law Attorney Today

The Law Offices of Brian I. Vogel represents California workers in helping them win justice and financial recovery through employment discrimination, wrongful termination, and other labor law matters. With three decades of experience in bringing hundreds of actions on behalf of California workers, Brian Vogel has the skills, tenacity, and deep knowledge of California and federal employment law to fight for justice on your behalf. Contact him today to schedule a consultation regarding your potential claim relating to paid sick leave.