S.F. Works To Build Awareness of Employee Paid Sick Leave Law

A growing number of San Francisco residents are benefiting from the city's paid sick leave law that took effect last year, but many businesses and employees are still unaware of the law, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The law, passed by voters in February 2006, made San Francisco the first city in the nation to require employers to provide paid sick leave to all workers, including temporary and part-time staff.

The city mailed out explanations of the law with its annual business license renewal forms, but it failed to garner the attention of some employers.

To increase awareness, San Francisco officials are launching a $195,000 outreach campaign to workers that will involve targeting multilingual community groups.

Officials also plan to spend $150,000 on advertising to inform employers about the sick leave law and other recent laws involving employee health care benefits and wages.

Under the law, businesses must provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours put in by workers. Employers with less than 10 employees are limited to providing 40 hours of accrued leave per worker, while larger businesses are limited to 72 hours.

Employees can use the accrued sick leave hours to care for themselves or for family members, including registered domestic partners (DeBare, San Francisco Chronicle, 2/6).