The City of San Diego’s minimum wage increase and paid sick leave were made effective on July 11, 2016.  Therefore, all employers that have workers who work within the City of San Diego for two hours or more in any week must comply with the minimum wage increase ($10.50/hour) and paid sick leave requirements.  The minimum wage will increase as follows:

The City is considering an Implementing Ordinance that would clarify and change some of the provisions of the law, such as:

• Allowing employers to cap the paid sick leave at 80 hours (currently the ordinance does not permit at cap)
• Employees may determine how much earned sick leave they need to use, provided that Employers may set a reasonable minimum increment for the use of earned sick leave not to exceed two hours
• Would allow employers to issue an up-front grant of 40 hours at the beginning of each benefit year as an alternative method of providing employees the paid sick leave (currently the ordinance only permits employers to grant one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked by the employee)
• Require employers to provide written notice of the employer’s legal name and any fictitious business names, address, and telephone number.  The notice must also include information on how the employer satisfies the requirements of the law, including the employer’s method of earned sick leave accrual.  This notice must be translated to the employee’s primary language if that language is spoken by at least five percent of the employees at the employer’s workplace.

Employers with employees working within the City of San Diego must take immediate steps to comply with the new requirements, and need to continually monitor what changes to the law that may or may not be made under the Implementing Ordinance.

The City’s Frequently Ask Questions can be viewed here.  Also, employers can review if any of their employees work within the City with reference to the City’s geographical boundaries.