Emergency Family and Medical Paid Leave Expansion Act

Through December 31, 2020 expands eligibility for FMLA leave to add paid, job protected leave required “because of a qualifying need related to a public health emergency” (emergency leave), which means “the employee is unable to work (or telework) due to a need for leave to care for the son or daughter under 18 years of age of such employee if the school or place of care has been closed, or the child care provider of such son or daughter is unavailable, due to a public health emergency.”  Limited to need to be home to care for children who are out of school due to a closure or have no available day care due to a closure.

Emergency family leave applies to employees who have worked for employer for at least 30 days and applies to all employers “with 500 or fewer employees”.

Leave for first 10 days may consist of unpaid leave (but the employee may take emergency paid sick leave for the first two weeks, see above), and the employee may elect (but can’t be required) to use other accrued PTO or sick leave before taking leave under the Act.

After first two weeks, an eligible employee must be paid 2/3 of his or her regular pay, up to a maximum of $200 per day and a total of $10,000 for the full 10-week period.

When able to return, Employees must be restored to their position in accordance with existing FMLA rules.