Local and State Updates
San Francisco
Military Leave Pay Protection Act
The Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) has updated the required employer poster for the city’s Military Leave Pay Protection Act. We recommend updating this poster as soon as possible. The changes were limited to the Spanish and Filipino translations; specifically, the last sentence in each section that states where to find more information on the OLSE website. As a reminder, if you have at least 100 employees in the city, you are subject to this ordinance and are responsible for providing employees with this notice of an employee’s right to supplemental compensation within a reasonable timeframe after the employee provides notice of their military leave.
Paid Parental Leave Ordinance (PPLO)
In other news for our San Francisco clients, the OLSE has also confirmed that the PPLO wage cap for 2024 will remain at $2,700 per week. Under the SF ordinance, employers are required to supplement an eligible employee’s PFL parental leave benefits up to 100% of an employee’s weekly salary, or a weekly maximum amount that is determined each year by the City, whichever amount is lower. Most of our clients provide salary continuation up to full pay, even if the employee’s salary is above the weekly SF PPLO cap.
Colorado
The Colorado Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program is finally live as of January 1, 2024, and with that, an updated notice for the program is now available on the CO FAMLI website or here, for your convenience. The main change to the notice is the removal of future tense verbiage, so instead of stating benefits will be available, the notice now states benefits are available and provides the CO FAMLI website for instructions on how to apply. Please be sure to change out the notice displayed in your CO workplace with the new one as soon as practicable.
Illinois
The Illinois Department of Labor has published the updated required poster for the Victims’ Economic Security and Safety Act which was amended in August (see this newsletter for details).
Also available is the required poster for the Paid Leave for All Workers Act which we discussed here. Last but not least, there is a summary poster that is also required – it refers to the above laws as well as other employment laws within the state.
These posters should be displayed where the other notices are posted, in a conspicuous place where employees can readily access them.
Massachusetts
The Department of Family and Medical Leave has released revised guidance in regard to the changes to the program that granted employees the ability to “top up” their paid family and medical leave benefits with vacation, sick time, or other PTO. Previously, it was understood that use of employer-provided paid time off was the employee’s choice, and that an employer’s policy could not mandate an employee’s use of PTO concurrent with PFML benefits. These newest revisions may be good news for any Massachusetts employers, as the DFML’s new FAQs confirm that employers are able to apply the terms of their own PTO policy. Feel free to read the updated FAQs here on the DFML’s website.
Nevada
You may recall from this newsletter that the Silver State’s law that provides leave for victims of domestic violence has been broadened to include victims of sexual assault, effective January 1, 2024. The “Domestic Violence Bulletin” which is required to be posted in a conspicuous location in each workplace, has been updated to reflect the change. You can find the updated bulletin here.
Canada Provincial Update
Québec
Late last year, we predicted the 2024 maximum weekly benefit amounts for the Québec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) with the confirmed Maximum Insurance Earnings rate of $94,000. Now that the province’s website has finally been updated with the new year, we are able to confirm the actual numbers compared to what we had calculated. For the Basic Plan, the maximum weekly benefit amount is $1,265 For the Special Plan, the maximum weekly benefit amount is $1,355. During weeks 8-32 of the Basic Plan for shareable parental benefits, the maximum weekly benefit is $994 (see the second column and third row of the Pregnancy and Birth table).
