Spotlight for Career Services Professionals
Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals

On March 18, 2020, the U.S. Senate passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (the Act), which aims to stem the tide of the growing COVID-19 pandemic by establishing emergency paid sick leave and emergency Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave programs for employers with fewer than 500 employees, as reported by Hoffman Hlavac & Easterly.

That evening, President Donald Trump signed the act into law. It will go into effect on April 2, 2020 and will no longer be effective as of January 1, 2021.

Hoffman Hlavac & Easterly indicates that the emergency paid sick leave and emergency FMLA leave programs will place sizable obligations on smaller employers, including those that are not currently covered by the FMLA. Although some employers have been encouraged by the Act authorizing the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to issue regulations that would exempt employers with fewer than 50 employees from the emergency paid sick leave and emergency FMLA leave programs, there are many unanswered questions.