Eligible employees began to accrue PSL on the first day of employment.

Part-time and full-time employees are covered. Exempt and nonexempt employees are also covered. Temporary, seasonal and even out-of-state employees can be covered too, if they spend enough time working for your business here in California.

Example: You are a large employer with offices in many states. You have workers that reside in Oregon and work mainly out of your Oregon office. However, one of your Oregon workers comes to your home office in California to work for one week out of every month; that employee will be covered under the PSL law because the employee will be here for 30 or more days in a year.

The following five groups of employees are not covered, and are not entitled to the paid sick leave:

• Employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement that provides for sick leave, has binding arbitration and meets other requirements, including a regular hourly rate of pay of not less than 30 percent more than the state minimum wage rate. Notwithstanding this exception, the procedural and anti-retaliation provisions under Labor Code section 245.5 apply to this group of employees.2
• Construction employees under certain types of collective bargaining agreement.
• Certain air carrier employees who are provided time off that is equal to what is provided under the Act.
• Certain public retired annuitants;
• Employees covered by the Federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act.

• If you think you meet one of the exceptions, consult legal counsel.

• The 30 days of work in a year must be for the same employer to qualify for accrued sick leave. In other words, an employee is not eligible for PSL until they work for your business for 30 days within a year of the start of employment.

1. Lab. Code sec. 246(a)(1)