• An employee is any person who performs work, including on a part-time or temporary basis, within San Francisco for an employer. An employer is any person who directly or indirectly employs or exercises control over the wages, hours, or working conditions of an employee.
• For employees hired by an employer after February 5, 2007, paid sick leave begins to accrue 90 calendar days after the employee’s first day of work. For every 30 hours worked, an employee accrues one hour of paid sick. Paid sick leave accrues only in hour-unit increments, not in fractions of an hour.
• For employees of employers for which fewer than 10 persons (including full-time, part-time, and temporary employees) work for compensation during a given week, there is a cap of 40 hours of accrued paid sick leave. For employees of other employers, there is a cap of 72 hours of accrued paid sick leave. An employee’s accrued paid sick leave does not expire; it carries over from year to year.
• If an employer has a paid leave policy, such as a paid time off policy, that makes available to employees an amount of paid leave that may be used for the same purposes as paid sick leave under the law and that is sufficient to meet the accrual requirements under the law.

Employers with two or more employees must also comply with:

Cal-COBRA

Qualifying events are the same as for federal COBRA, except that the employer bankruptcy is not considered a qualifying event under Cal-COBRA. California mandates 36 months of Cal-COBRA continuation coverage for small employers with 2 to 19 employees. Cal-Cobra also adds an additional 18 months (up to a total of 36 months) of medical coverage beyond that which is required under federal Cobra for a termination or reduction in hours. Cal-COBRA only applies to plans written, delivered and filed in California.

Employers with five or more employees must also comply with:

California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA)

• Requires equal employment opportunity
• Protects against discrimination based on: sex, race, color, ancestry, religious creed, national origin, physical disability (including HIV and AIDS), mental disability, medical condition (cancer), marital status, sexual orientation, or political affiliation. Age consideration in employment decisions is prohibited for everyone, the “over 40” provisions having been eliminated by AB1599 on 1-1-2003.
• Allows up to four months of unpaid leave of absence for pregnancies, childbirth or related medical conditions upon certification of pregnant employee's inability to continue working
• Protects against sexual harassment in the workplace and requires employers to distribute DFEH information sheet on sexual harassment. Requires all subject employers to have policies against harassment which meet minimum requirements as specified by the requirements of AB 2264 (Government Code Section 12950)
• Enforcement is by Department of Fair Employment and Housing  (DFEH)
• Poster requirements

Employers with 15 or more employees must also comply with:

Pregnancy Disability

AB 2865 (California Government Code Section 12945) requires employers to reasonably accommodate temporarily disabled pregnant employees who request a transfer to a less strenuous or hazardous position if the request is made with the advice of her physician. However, an employer need not accommodate a pregnant employee by (a) creating additional employment which would not otherwise exist; (b) discharging another employee; (c) transferring any employee with more seniority; or (d) promoting any employee who is not qualified to perform the job.

Employers with 25 or more employees also need to comply with:

California Labor Code Sections 1025-1028 (Drug Rehabilitation Leave)

Requires an employer to reasonably accommodate an employee's request to enter either an alcohol or drug rehabilitation program. Employers are not required to pay for this time off. Reasonable accommodation may include payment for the cost of the program depending on circumstances.

Family-School Partnership Act

Employers must allow workers to take up to forty hours per child each year (max 8 hours per month) to visit the child's school (grades Kindergarten through 12). Employers are prohibited from discharging or discriminating against an employee who must take time off from work to appear at a child's school regarding child's suspension. Workers must provide reasonable prior notice and must use existing vacation or leave time.

Military Spouse Leave

Requires employers to provide up to 10 days of unpaid leave to qualified employees. Employees are eligible to take this time off only during "qualified leave periods," defined as periods during which the soldier-spouses are on leave from deployment.  Employers may not retaliate against employees for requesting or taking the leave provided by this new statute, which goes into effect immediately.  "Qualified employees" are those who work an average of 20+ hours per week and who are married to members of the U.S. armed forces deployed during a period of military conflict to an area designated as a combat theater or zone or members of the National Guard or reserves deployed during a period of military conflict.

Employers with 50 employees or more also need to comply with:

AB 1825 Sexual Harassment Prevention Training

• Requires a minimum of 2 hours of training and education to all supervisory employees at least once every two years.
• Training must be "interactive" but can be done on the Internet, in a classroom or by any other delivery method as long as the participants are able to interact with the process.

California Family Rights Act (CFRA)

• An employee may take an unpaid leave for the birth of a child for purposes of bonding, for placement of a child in the employee's family for adoption or foster care, for the serious health condition of the employee's child, parent, or spouse, and for the employee's own serious health condition

• Employers must allow up to 12 workweeks in a 12-month period. It does not need to be taken in one continuous period of time.  For events relating to birth, adoption or foster care there is a minimum two week leave duration required