On September 10, 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 1522, the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 (“the Act”). The Act grants nearly all California employees the right to at least three days of paid sick leave per year and imposes new requirements on private employers, with enforcement set to begin July 1, 2015.

California is now the second state in the nation, after Connecticut, to require almost all public and private-sector employers to provide their employees with paid sick days. The Act follows the passage of paid sick leave ordinances in several cities across the country, including three in California: San Francisco, San Diego, and Long Beach, which are summarized below. The Act is expected to require provision of paid sick leave to about 6.5 million California workers, or 40% of California’s workforce who do not currently receive this benefit from their employers.