Everyone in California Gets Sick Leave

If you get sick after July 1st, you will likely be eligible for paid sick leave.  Thanks to the Healthy Families Act of 2014, virtually every employer in California must provide paid sick leave to their employees. 
Many non-benefited employees are excited that getting the flu won't impact their wallet. But many employers, especially small employers, are concerned about the cost of the new law because employers have to pay employees to not be at work, and there is a lot of administrative overhead around this new (and confusing) law.

WHO is Eligible to Receive Paid Sick Leave?

• Any employee who works for 30 days or more after 1/1/15 is eligible for paid sick leave.  This includes full-time, part-time and seasonal employees.

HOW Much Paid Sick Leave can an Employee get?

• Employees will accrue 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.  If sick leave is accrued, then it must carry over year-to-year, but the employer can cap it at 48 hours.
• Alternatively, the employer can award 24 hours of paid sick leave at the beginning of each year.  In this case, sick leave does not have to accrue or be carried over.

 How do employees USE it?

• Once your employee has worked for 90 days or more, they can use their accrued paid sick leave.
• The employer can limit the use of paid sick leave to 24 hours per year.
• The employee can use the paid sick leave for their own health condition or for the health condition of a family member.

What do EMPLOYERS have to do?

• Display a Sick Leave Poster at their place of work
• Provide an Individualized Notice to each employee by 7/8/15 or earlier
• Show the amount of paid sick leave available to the employee on their paystub (or other written form) on each payday
• Keep records of sick leave for 3 years
• Employers do NOT have to pay out accrued sick leave when their employee terminates their employment
• If the employer operates in a location that already has a sick leave policy then they have to follow the more generous plan

What can Cromwell Tax & Bookkeeping do to help Employers with this?

• Payroll is very complicated and the penalties associated with mistakes are very high.  Payroll is one job that you do not want to do yourself.  Cromwell Tax & Bookkeeping offers full service payroll support that is affordable for small companies.

For more information go to the California DIR FAQ

 

Add "Tax Talk" to your Wedding Checklist

Congratulations.. you are getting married!  You and your fiancé were wise to take a few years to get to know each other better.  You know their sleeping habits, their favorite food, and their friends.  But do you know about their tax habits?

Here are the things you should know before getting married:

1. If you are married on the last day of the year, you are considered married for the entire year and you must file a return as Married (either Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately).

2.  For some couples, marriage means paying more in taxes and for some it means paying less.  Your Enrolled Agent can help you estimate your tax liability as a married couple so you are not surprised next April 15th.

3. Don't change your W4 withholding to Married just because you said "I do".  Be sure you understand your joint tax liability before making changes. (This applies to self-employed folks and their quarterly payments, too).

4. Does your betrothed have an outstanding tax liability you don't know about?  While you may not be liable for that tax debt, it will impact your lifestyle if your beloved has to make large payments to the IRS for the next 5 years.

5. Look at optimizing your benefits at work.  If your beloved has a fabulous medical plan, it may be worth getting on her benefits.   Is life more affordable with two incomes?  Then it may be worth maxing out your 401(k) plan.  Many of these work related benefits are tax friendly.

As always, each individual's experience is different.  So, please be sure to contact your Enrolled Agent to understand how marriage will impact you.