H.R. 6201 - Families First Coronavirus Response Act Signed into Law by President Trump 3/21/2020
H.R. 6201 - Families First Coronavirus Response Act Signed into Law by President Trump
3/21/2020
Late Wednesday evening (March 19, 2020), President Trump signed into law the H.R. 6201 - Families First Coronavirus Response Act. This bill provides additional benefits to qualifying employees and payroll tax credits to employers that are required to provide family or emergency sick leave benefits to employees as a result of this crisis. The bill shall take effect no later than 15 days after the March 18 signing date (April 2, 2020). As of this writing, there has been no official notification that the bill is in force prior to April 2. The act, if unchanged, will sunset on December 31, 2020.
EMERGENCY FAMILY MEDICAL LEAVE EXPANSION ACT (EFMLA):
The act is a temporary amendment to the existing FMLA Act and requires all employers with less than 500 employees to provide up to 12 weeks of leave to employees that have been employed for 30 days if the employee needs time off work to care for a child under age 18 whose school or other place of care is closed or unavailable due to a public health emergency. The first two weeks are unpaid. The next 10 weeks are paid at a rate of 2/3 the employees normal pay rate, not to exceed $200 per day ($10,000 per employee (50 workdays X $200/Day). Employees may elect to use unused accrued vacation or accrued sick leave during the first 10 days.
EMERGENCY PAID SICK LEAVE (EPSL):
This act requires all employers with less than 500 employees to provide 80 hours (2 weeks) of paid sick leave to employees that qualify under one of the following six criteria:
1. Subject to a federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19.
2. Advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to COVID-19 concerns.
3. Experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and seeking medical diagnosis.
4. Caring for an individual subject to a federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order or advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to COVID-19 concerns.
5. Caring for the employee’s child if the child’s school or place of care is closed or the child’s care provider is unavailable due to public health emergency; or
6. Experiencing any other substantially similar condition specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Labor.
Sick leave will be paid at the employee’s regular rate with a cap of $511/day ($5,110 total) if they fall into criteria 1-3 above and 2/3 the employees regular rate with a cap of $200/day ($2,000 total) if they qualify under criteria 4-6 above.
TAX CREDITS FOR EMERGENCY FMLA AND EMERGENCY PAID SICK LEAVE:
Employers subject to the two new emergency provisions above are eligible for refundable payroll tax credits against the employer portion of Social Security and Medicare taxes paid as follows:
EMFLA: 100% refundable payroll tax credit of the amount of EMFLA wages paid each quarter up to an aggregate amount of $10,000 per calendar quarter.
EPSL: 100% refundable payroll tax credit of the amount of EPSL wages paid each quarter.
Presumably these credits will be claimed when employers file their Quarterly Forms 941 – Employers Quarterly Federal Payroll Tax Return.
OTHER PROVISIONS:
The Secretary of Labor has the authority to issue regulations to exempt small businesses (Fewer than 50 employees) when the requirements under this act “would jeopardize the viability of the business as a going concern”. As of now there have been no such regulations published.
FMD will continue to monitor any changes made to this Act and provide updates as necessary. Please check back frequently to this page for COVID-19 updates from FMD. If you have any questions, please consult your FMD Professional Advisor at any time.
