The Federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”), which required that employers with fewer than 500 employees provide sick and family leave benefits for certain COVID-19 related reasons, expired on December 31, 2020. Specifically, the FFCRA’s sick and family leave provisions were not extended as part of the pandemic relief package that was signed by the President on December 27. As a result, employers will not be required to provide paid leave under the FFCRA after December 31, 2020.
Even though the FFCRA’s leave provisions were not extended, the relief package extends the FFCRA tax credit, which reimburses employers for the cost of providing FFCRA leave, through March 31, 2021. Therefore, beginning on January 1, 2021, employers are no longer required to provide FFCRA leave; however, covered employers who voluntarily offer such leave may utilize payroll tax credits to cover the cost of benefits paid to employees through the end of March. The relief package does not change the qualifying reasons for which employees may take leave, the caps on the amount of pay employees receive, or the FFCRA’s documentation requirements.
The law also does not change the amount of leave under the FFCRA. Under the FFCRA, full time employees were entitled to a one-time allotment of 80 hours of paid sick leave and 12 weeks of expanded family medical leave. Therefore, an employer is likely not entitled to a second tax credit for an employee taking leave in 2021, if that employee took leave in 2020.
Nevertheless, employers should be mindful that some states and local governments have enacted COVID-19 leave laws that may not have expired at the end of the year.