Philly workers will get extra sick pay for COVID all year, even after national emergency ends

The nation’s COVID-19 emergency declarations are ending this spring, but many Philadelphia workers will have a right to additional paid sick time if they catch the virus.

A city law in Philadelphia requires businesses with 25 or more workers to provide an additional 40 hours of paid sick time for COVID-related time off — covering people experiencing COVID symptoms, isolating after an exposure, dealing with a COVID-related child-care disruption or school closure, or caring for an infected family member. Workers can also use the paid leave to take a COVID test, get vaccinated, or recover from a vaccine-related health issue.

The law, enacted by City Council in the spring of 2022, remains in effect even as most state and federal COVID policies tied to the pandemic have expired. It will still stand after the national COVID emergency declarations sunset May 11, ending free access to vaccines, testing, and eventually some COVID treatments.

» READ MORE: Philly, you can still get paid COVID sick leave. Here’s how.

Employers are required to provide the additional paid sick time when requested. They may ask workers for a statement confirming that they took the leave because of a COVID-related issue.

City Councilmember Kendra Brooks, who authored the legislation, said Thursday that she doesn’t plan to try to extend the guaranteed COVID-related sick time, which is set to expire at the end of this year.

For health-care workers, Philadelphia offers even more sick time. The city mandates health-care workers with COVID receive paid sick leave until they are well if they work for a company with 10 or more employees. That expires only when the World Health Organization or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the pandemic is over.

Philadelphia’s policies helped curb COVID’s spread, said Megan Gorman, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, a union representing health-care workers at Temple University Hospital and Einstein Medical Center. She noted that health-care workers still want COVID-specific paid leave.

» READ MORE: What does the end of the pandemic public health emergency mean for you

“Our frontline caregivers are still battling the pandemic and all the harms it has wrought,” Gorman said. “They need and deserve every protection we can give them.”