With COVID-19 sadly on the increase, employers are asking us more questions than ever about their responsibilities to pay their staff who cannot come to work for COVID related reasons.
Basically, if you have an employee who cannot come in to work for COVID related reasons, the Federal Government has enacted the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) which is currently law through December 31, 2020. Please Note: FFCRA applies to businesses that are open and have staff not able to work for various COVID reasons. More info is available at: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/pandemic/ffcra-employer-paid-leave.
If your practice pays FFCRA wages, you are eligible to receive an immediate dollar-for-dollar reimbursement of the FFCRA wages paid through payroll tax credits. Your payroll service should be able to help you with this.
If you have an employee who can’t work due to COVID reasons:
If the leave is for one of the following three reasons, then you are required to pay a full-time employee for up to 80 hours of leave and a part-time employee for the number of hours of leave that the employee works on average over a two-week period. Employees taking leave shall be paid at either their regular rate or the applicable minimum wage, whichever is higher, up to $511 per day and $5,110 in the aggregate (over a 2-week period). This provision applies if your employee:
- is subject to a Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19;
- has been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine related to COVID-19;
- is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and is seeking a medical diagnosis.
If the leave is for one of the following two reasons, then a full-time employee is eligible for up to 80 hours of leave, and a part-time employee is eligible for the number of hours of leave that the employee works on average over a two-week period. Employees taking leave shall be paid at 2/3 their regular rate or 2/3 the applicable minimum wage, whichever is higher, up to $200 per day and $2,000 in the aggregate (over a 2-week period). This provision applies if your employee:
- is caring for an individual subject to order #1 or #2 above;
- is experiencing any other substantially-similar condition specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Secretaries of Labor and Treasury.
If the leave is for the following reason, then a full-time employee is eligible for up to 10 weeks of additional leave at 40 hours a week, and a part-time employee is eligible for leave for the number of hours that the employee is normally scheduled to work over that period. Employees taking leave shall be paid at 2/3 their regular rate or 2/3 the applicable minimum wage, whichever is higher, up to $200 per day and $10,000 in the aggregate. This provision applies if your employee:
- is caring for a child whose school or place of care is closed (or childcare provider is unavailable) for reasons related to COVID-19.
Practices with fewer than 50 employees might be exempt from this provision of the FFCRA. More info is available at: https://schwartzaccountants.com/2020/10/are-you-required-to-pay-staff-who-cant-work.-due-to-childcare-issues/.
Please note that if a business is shut down, then employees will file for unemployment instead of having the business owners pay their wages under FFCRA.