Here at Miletti Law®, it’s our commitment to continue publishing blogs and making videos that aim to keep you, our unusually motivated® readers, #InTheKnow about diverse legal and non-legal issues that affect you or your businesses. As the authoritative force in Employment and Labor Law today, we endeavor to continue enlightening you about what the labor law says, particularly here in New York City. Under this context, we’ve prepared for you a video titled “Employers Are Not Required To Provide Employees With COVID Sick Leave after 2020 Under Fed. Law,” which is accessible through the link provided at the end of this blog.

By way of backdrop, we found it necessary to prepare the video, which is strictly limited to sick leave in New York, to educate New York employees and employers what the law says about COVID-19 sick leave. Employees are notoriously known for taking advantage of every situation and manipulating it to their own advantage. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided employees with the opportunity to routinely abuse the sick leave policy in many workplaces. Unfortunately, they use COVID-19 sick leave as a disguise for attending parties and visiting their families and friends. It’s not a wonder to see their social media accounts flocking with pictures and videos showing them intoxicated in these events and activities.

That being said, let’s dive in and be informed.

Sick Leave Requirements in New York

Under the law, the amount of Sick Leave required depends generally on either the amount of employees you have, or your overall net income. This is broken into three specific levels, which will form the basis for sick leave requirements in New York:

0-4 employees

As an employer, if you have 4 employees or less and have a net income of less than one million dollars, you are obligated to provide 40 hours of unpaid sick leave per accounting year, which accrues at 1 hour for every 30 hours worked. However, if your net income is more than one million dollars, you are obligated to provide your employees paid sick leave of up to 40 hours per accounting year.

5-99 employees

If you have, as an employer, between 5 and 99 employees, you are obligated to provide your employees with paid sick leave of up to 40 hours for every accounting year. These hours are accrued at 1 hour for every 30 hours worked.

Greater than 100 employees

Finally, employers with more than 100 employees are obligated to guarantee their employees at least 56 hours of paid sick leave per accounting year.

As a preliminary matter, it’s crucial to note that New York employers who provide for PTO (Paid Time Off) to their employees which exceed these requirements are already compliant with the sick leave law. However, those who don’t meet these requirements are obligated to make efforts to be compliant with the law.

COVID-19 – The Bone of Contention in Sick Leave

In the year 2020, employers in New York, just like in other states, were mandated to provide employees with extra number of hours as COVID days off following the nation-wide testing and quarantine initiatives.

Unfortunately for employees (I’m sure employers are ambivalent), that’s no longer the case in 2021 because that directive was supposed to end on December 31, 2020. This implies that employers in New York have the option to grant COVID-19 sick leave and, if they wish, they can get money back by filing with the IRS when remitting their quarterly tax returns.

So, what does this mean? Let’s take a scenario. Your employee gets sick with COVID-19 and applies for 2 days of sick leave, which costs you $200 in paid leave. Under the law, you can deduct that $200 from the contribution you’d be making towards your quarterly unemployment tax (the 941). In return, the federal government, through the IRS, will give you dollar for dollar credits.

However, this is an option for employers in 2021 and isn’t mandated like it used to be last year. As an employee, you ought to understand that if your employer doesn’t really want you to get the benefit, then they do not have to because they are not obligated or required to do so under the law.

The point is – it’s not an obligation or requirement that employers should provide their employees with a paid COVID-19 sick leave after December 30, 2020. However, they could if they want to provide such leave.

Therefore, when you, as an employee, apply for COVID-19 sick leave and go partying or visiting your family and friends, you are the loser at the end of the day.

To the employer, the law favors you currently if you want to be stricter and firmer about paid COVID-19 sick leaves. The law has provided you with more autonomy in 2021 than it did in 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gPWGu9qQbE

Stay tuned for the next installment and always be #UnusuallyMotivated. In the interim, if there are any questions or comments, please let us know at the Contact Us page!