Families First Coronavirus Response Act
#sickleave #smallbusinesses #coronavirususa #unemployment
H.R.6201 - Families First Coronavirus Response Act
Effective date April 2, 2020
Expires December 31, 2020
The bill includes provisions related to paid leave benefits, unemployment, coronavirus testing, and more:
establish a federal emergency paid leave benefits program to provide payments to employees taking unpaid leave due to the coronavirus outbreak,
expand unemployment benefits and provide grants to states for processing and paying claims,
require employers to provide paid sick leave to employees,
establish requirements for providing coronavirus diagnostic testing at no cost to consumers,
treat personal respiratory protective devices as covered countermeasures that are eligible for certain liability protections, and
temporarily increase the Medicaid federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP).
Emergency Family and Medical Leave
Eligible employee
- means an employee who has been employed for at least 30 calendar days by the employer
Employer threshold
- 50 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year
- shall not apply with respect to an employee of an employer who employs fewer than 25 employees if certain conditions are met.
Relationship to paid leave
– unpaid leave for the initial 10 days
Emergency Unemployment Insurance
Expands unemployment benefits and provide grants to states for processing and paying claims
Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act
Employer paid sick time for employees unable to work (or telework) due to COVID-19
- quarantine or isolation order
- medical advice of self-quarantine
- symptoms of COVID–19 and seeking a medical diagnosis
- caring for an individual who is subject to an order or has been advised to self-quarantine
- caring for a son or daughter of such employee if the school or place of care has been closed, or the child care provider is unavailable
- experiencing any other substantially similar condition specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Labor.
- it may exclude an employee of a health care provider or an emergency responder
- full-time employees are entitled to 80 hours of paid sick time
- part-time employees are entitled to the number of hours that such employee works on average over a 2-week period
Employers threshold
- fewer than 500 employees
- exclusion for good cause for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees under the authority of the Secretary of Labor when the imposition of such requirements would jeopardize the viability of the business as a going concern.
Tax Credits to Employers for Paid Sick and Paid Family and Medical Leave
- credit equal to 100% of the qualified sick leave wages paid by employer, to a maximum ranging from $200 to $511 per day and aggregate number of days to be taken into account
- in the case of a self-employed individual, credit equal to 100% of the qualified sick leave equivalent with respect to the individual