Employees who can’t work because they’re sick from coronavirus, under quarantine or taking care of children will be eligible for up to two weeks of paid sick leave starting Wednesday, giving millions of Texas workers access to paid leave for the first time.

But the emergency sick leave benefit Congress mandated earlier this month and which the federal government will fully subsidize is available only to employees who work for companies with fewer than 500 employees.

And it’s not retroactive, meaning that workers can’t claim government-subsidized sick leave benefits from the federal program for time they spent at home either sick, under a quarantine order or providing child care before Wednesday, April 1.

But workers who were sick or under quarantine and whose employers already paid them for their time at home earlier this year because of the coronavirus will be entitled to another two weeks of paid leave under the new legislation beginning April 1, according to the Labor Department.

The program will expand the number of workers eligible for paid sick leave, albeit for only one specific disease.

About 40 percent of the Texas workforce don’t have the benefit of paid sick leave, according to the Washington research group the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Low-wage and part-time workers are especially unlikely to be covered by paid leave policies in Texas, according to the institute.

The legislation will put more money in the pockets of employees when they need it most and employers can claim a payroll tax to pay for it, said one employment expert.

“Employers are glad to find any way they can to keep employees connected,” said A. Kevin Troutman, an employment lawyer with Fisher Phillips in Houston.

Another part of the federal legislation —which is known as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act — will provide an extra 10 weeks of partial pay for workers who have children at home whose schools or child care facilities have closed because of the coronavirus. That provision, too, goes into effect Wednesday.

The new family leave benefits — while narrowly drawn — will expand the universe of U.S. workers who receive paid family leave. Currently, only about 19 percent of workers have access to paid family leave through their employers, according to the Washington-based advocacy group National Partnership for Women and Families.

The federal government is picking up the cost of paid sick and family leave by providing tax credits to employers.

The Labor Department said the reimbursement will allow employers to keep their workers on their payrolls as the pandemic spreads. Employees will also not be forced to choose between going to work sick so they can get paid and the public health social distancing measures necessary to fight the spread of the virus.

Under the emergency sick leave program, eligible employees have two options to receive paid sick leave.

Either they can receive 80 hours of paid leave up to $511 a day if they’re sick themselves or under quarantine, or partial pay for 80 hours for taking care of a child under 18 whose school or child care provider is closed because of coronavirus. In that second instance, pay is capped at two-thirds the regular rate, up to $200 a day.

Beyond that, a special provision of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act is triggered that workers with family members who need care and have been employed at least 30 calendar days can receive an extra 10 weeks of paid leave at two-thirds their regular rate of pay, up to $200 a day.

However, the number of weeks is reduced if an employee has already taken family and medical leave earlier in the plan year, according to the Labor Department. Under the FMLA, employees are entitled to 12 weeks of family and medical leave each year to care for their own illness or the illnesses of family members and child-care coronavirus care counts toward that total.

And if you get sick later in the year after using up 10 weeks of cororavirus family-related care this spring and summer? You’ve got just two weeks remaining of family and medical leave and may have to rely on other laws such as the federal Americans with Disabilities Act to get extra time to recover, said employment lawyer Terah Moxley at Estes Thorne & Carr in Dallas.

Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees may qualify for an exemption from providing leave because of school closings or child care unavailability if the absence would jeopardize the viability of the business, according to the Labor Department.

The program expires at the end of the year.

lynn.sixel@chron.com

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