Workers in California will soon receive a minimum of five days of paid sick leave annually, instead of three, under a new law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Wednesday.

The law, which takes effect in January, also increases the amount of sick leave workers can carry over into the following year. Newsom said it demonstrates that prioritizing the health and well-being of workers “is of the utmost importance for California’s future.”

“Too many folks are still having to choose between skipping a day’s pay and taking care of themselves or their family members when they get sick,” Newsom said in a statement announcing his action.

  • GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    A good start, but five days is still a laughable amount. That’s literally one illness, one time being sick.

      • dumdum666@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Not true - you do not get infinite sick days

        You get your regular salary for up to 6 weeks, after that there is a steep drop in pay - since you receive „sick pay“ then. After 72 weeks sick pay ends. Then you might be eligible for social security.

          • PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            I mean depending on what that’s 80% of it could be the difference between affordability and lack thereof

          • dumdum666@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            No - not that easy. it is 70% of your pre tax income with a maximum of 90% your net income. How deep the cut actually is depends on several factors. One factor: There is a maximum amount you can receive - no matter how high your income was. If you earn well and cross that threshold, you will receive way less than the official percentages. To compensate for that you have to get a private insurance.

        • speaker_hat@lemmy.one
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          1 year ago

          Thanks, compared to 5 days, 6 weeks subjectively feels infinite (for an average healthy employee)

          • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It’s important to point out, this is not people deciding not to come to work for 6 weeks and all is good, government picks up the tab. You actually have to be sick, that is to say doctor opens this leave, confirms there’s a need for one, etc.

        • Black616Angel@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          That is also not completely correct.

          You can get infinite sick days. It just has to be a different illness every 6 weeks. (not repeating the same year)

          • dumdum666@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            If you stay in the first 6 weeks threshold you are technically correct - but good luck finding an employer that will keep employing you. You will get sent to an doctor appointed by your employer and if you are „simulating“ you will get fired easily.

    • Pat_Riot@lemmy.today
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      1 year ago

      Cries in a different US state where our company busted us from 40 hours of sick time to 24 to make every plant in the country equal to California’s minimum because it’s the only state with one of our facilities that has a minimum. I’m curious to see if this ends up bringing all our plants up to 40 hours or they hope none of us lowly factory workers pays attention to this sort of thing. I’ll be asking at the next communication meeting.

    • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Laughs in English, but the real English not American English.

  • ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The US Federal Government offers 13 paid sick days a year (that rollover indefinitely)…and between 13 and 26 vacation days (depending on service time)…and all federal holidays off paid. It’s not quite on the level of Europe, but it’s a damn sight better than most of the rest of the country.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s more than that…

      6 hrs a pay period for 26 pay periods, divide that by 8 to get days…

      19.5 sick days a year.

      (I was wrong about that, but still)

      Federal employees have one of the strongest unions in the country. But it’s not like they can help people outside their own union.

      The voters need to elect politicians will to make this stuff legislation for every American worker.

    • Staple_Diet@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      Even by Australian standards that is still pretty good, except it’s generally 20-30 days annual leave here in any permanent FT job and 10-15 sick days, some of which is already accrued at beginning of employment.

        • Staple_Diet@aussie.zone
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          1 year ago

          Yeah nah I got that. I understand they describe a deal that most likely at the upper end for most working Americans, but still below the minimum guarantees in EU and ANZ.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    What kind of success is that? Asking this coming from a country where we have 6 weeks of sick days before the income is covered by the health care system.

    • kromem@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If you tell someone who is starving that you won’t give them any food, they might decide there’s nothing left to lose and try to fight you for their survival.

      If instead you give that person just a bit of food - not enough to actually feed them, just enough to give them hope of satiation - rather than getting a knife in the ribs you might just get a grateful handshake and thanks.

      They’ll still starve, but with far less struggle.

      It’s that kind of success.

    • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Small. It’s one state and anywhere run by Republicans is stuck at the federal minimum of 0. This number will never go higher because Republican legislators won’t vote for it because they hate workers, and Democratic legislators are from states that already implemented higher wages and sick days so it’s a red state problem.

      It’s the same way with cannabis legalization and I expect they’ll do the same with abortion.

    • uis@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I have no idea. Answering this coming from a country where social security will cover income after 3 days of sickness.

  • Fades@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    five fucking sick days is still COMICALLY AND DISGUSTINGLY low. FUCK this out of control capitalism bs

  • vin@lemmynsfw.com
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    1 year ago

    From the headline I thought it’s changing from 3 per month to 5 per month. And I thought, good for you California. Then I read it’s per year. What the fuck is wrong with you all?

  • Nima@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Oh thank goodness! a whole extra TWO DAYS! Can ya spare it?

    the fact that we have a system in place where you can run out of sick days at all is disgusting.

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Surprised CA is behind the curve so much on this. Washington gives an hour for every 40 worked which amounts to 5.5 days per year if you are working a 40 hour work week. I think that was passed like a decade ago.

      • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I guess I should have rephrased it up at that Washington is so far ahead of the curve (in the US). The whole country is easy behind the curve compared to everywhere else.

    • FFbob@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Just made me check mine. I’m in a good union and earn 2.46 hours of sick per 40 hours of work and 3.28 hours of leave per 40 hours of work. A year of work is 2498 hours for us for reference.

      I also get 48 hours of other leave, 16 hours of leave per each of 13 holidays, and I can take my overtime as 1.5 hours of leave per hour worked instead of pay. We also get 240 hours parental leave for a new child.

      Leave accrues whenever we are in a paid status on straight time.

      • QuarterSwede@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s better than most of the country but behind newer companies that are attracting talent by giving them unlimited vacation/sick in writing.

        Either way the US seriously needs to regulate this and require much more. It’s pathetic how behind it is compared a lot of the world.

    • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I think it’s in addition. I say that because I worked for my company in two different states and they have a special PTO category in their time tracking / HR software for CA sick time.

    • Meeech@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The company I work for just merged PTO and sick time into one. Every 40h you gain an additional hour of PTO, so every two months you get 1 more sick/PTO day.

    • Ryumast3r@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Since there’s no minimum PTO requirement, yes but it has to be marked as sick time. Most employers in a state like California though know that they’re going to be the bottom of the barrel if they don’t offer more so they do.

  • IverCoder@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Five days? Even a lot of smaller, unregulated businesses here in the Phillipines offer way more than that.

  • uis@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    From what kind of sickness they expect to recover in 5 days? Cut finger?

    • braxy29@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      i guess you could get the flu (if it’s not too bad - once had it for about two weeks several years ago).

      but then you better NOT need anything else, all year. hopefully you don’t have kids either.

    • SCB@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      These are state-mandated days off, which are in addition to any provided by the workplace.

      In NY state for instance, our employees have an entire extra week off work they can take than elsewhere in the company. If they don’t use these days, they are paid out for them at their normal pay rate.

      • Ryumast3r@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Usually those other days though are just vacation days.

        Most other countries have those days on top of unlimited sick time.

  • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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    1 year ago

    LoL that’s still so few… it’s a step in the right direction but also I would argue a huge amount of employees over there are likely contractor tech workers who if my contract is anything to go off of… literally don’t get any sick days just infinite unpaid days off that they don’t actually want you to take any of unless the company needs to save a few dollars. I haven’t seen a doctor in years and pretty sure I have a cancer spot on my leg… but oh well don’t have insurance that is any good so I’ll just die I guess and my dad and incubator can be upset their one good kid failed to make it rich and support either of them.

  • TeamBrett@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    When this happened several years back and they gave us two sick days, our company just went ahead and shifted two of our PTO days to sick days.