Ep. 480 Update to Sick Pay and PTO in 2025

Rancho Mesa’s Alyssa Burley and Client Technology Coordinator, Brenda Khalil, discuss changes to sick pay and paid time off in California.

Show Notes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠

Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Alyssa Burley

Guest: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Brenda Khalil⁠⁠

Editor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Megan Lockhart

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “News Room News” by Spence

© Copyright 2025. Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Alyssa Burley: You’re listening to Rancho Mesa’s StudioOne™ podcast, where each week we break down complex insurance and safety topics to help your business thrive.

I’m your host, Alyssa Burley, and I’m joined by Brenda Khalil, Client Technology Coordinator with Rancho Mesa. Today, we’re going to discuss changes to sick pay and paid time off in California.

Brenda, welcome to the show.

Brenda Khalil: Thanks for having me Alyssa.

AB: Now, we know there’s been some changes made to California’s employment law starting in 2025. And we even hosted a workshop a few months ago in November that highlighted some of the most important changes. So, what can you tell us about the changes made to the use of paid sick leave for California employees?

BK: Well, I’m definitely not an employment attorney nor a HR specialist, but our HR experts have explained that the use of paid sick leave has been expanded to cover additional reasons for absence.

For example, employees can now use paid sick leave to cover time spent on jury duty, an appearance in court under a court order as a witness in a judicial proceeding, and any reason covered under the victim leave law, if the employee or their family member is a victim of any qualifying act of violence.

Additionally, agricultural workers whose job description requires them to work outside may use paid sick leave to avoid unsafe smoke, heat, or flooding conditions. So, to ensure your business is in compliance with these new requirements, it’s important to update your paid sick leave policy to include these new uses.

AB: Yeah, and it seems paid sick leave in California is moving more towards a generic paid time off (or PTO) bank that can be used for a number of reasons, not just when the employee is sick. I know many employers lump sick and vacation time into one PTO bank of hours to be used anyway the employee chooses, but that’s not always the case.

So, employers should check with their employment attorney or contact our HR experts in the RM365 HRAdvantage™ portal for clarification on their specific sick time or PTO policy to ensure that it’s in compliance

Now, we learned about changes to use of paid family leave requirements at our Employmnet Law workshop. Will you give us an overview of what has changed?

BK: Sure, so employers can no longer require employees to use up to two weeks of accrued, unused vacation time before they are able to receive Paid Family Leave (or PFL) from the state. And, employers should update family leave policies to remove any requirement that employees must use accrued vacation time before receiving Paid Family Leave benefits on or after January 1.

AB: Right, and changes to paid sick leave and Paid Family Leave policies can be made through Rancho Mesa’s HR portal by utilizing the Smart Employee Handbook builder.

And listeners can also register for Rancho Mesa’s 2025 Employment Law Update webinar through the “Workshops and Webinars” page on our website if they didn’t get a change to attend in person. And we’ll also put a link to register in the episode notes.

So Brenda, if clients have any questions about changes to employment law or about updating their policies to reflect these changes, what’s the best way to get information?

BK: If clients have specific employment law questions, they can submit those questions through the HR portal or call 1 (877) 800-6675 to speak to an HR Expert directly.

And for questions about updating policies, clients can contact me at bkhalil@ranchomesa.com or call me directly at (619) 486-6562.

AB: Brenda, thank you for joining me in StudioOne™.

BK: Thanks for having me.

AB: Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. If you enjoyed what you heard, please share this episode and subscribe. For more insights like this, visit us at RanchoMesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.