In addition to California Family Rights Act (CFRA) leave, what other types of leave are employees in the state of California entitled to?

Editor's Note: This content has been updated to reflect changes made by Senate Bill 616 to the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act, effective Jan. 1, 2024.

In addition to the protections afforded under California Family Rights Act (CFRA), California law provides a wide variety of statutory protections for employees for periods of time in which they are unable to work for a variety of reasons.

Paid sick leave. An employee who works in California for 30 or more days within a year from the beginning of employment is entitled to paid sick leave accrued at the rate of one hour per every 30 hours worked, or another method set by the employer so long as the employee accrues no less than 24 hours or three days of paid leave by the 120^th day of employment, and 40 hours or five days of paid leave by the 200^th day of employment. See Healthy Workplace Healthy Family Act of 2014 (AB 1522) and SB 616.

Kin care. Employers are required to permit employees to use a minimum of one-half of any available accrued sick leave per year for any purpose specified in the Paid Sick Leave law, including attending to the illness or preventative care of a child, parent, spouse, registered domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild or sibling. See California Labor Code Section 233.

Bereavement leave. AB 1949, effective Jan. 1, 2023, requires all employers employing five or more employees to give eligible employees up to five days of bereavement leave after the death of a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner or parent-in-law. Other family relationships are not included. See California Civil Rights Department: Bereavement Leave.

Reproductive loss. Effective Jan. 1, 2024, SB 848 requires employers with five or more employees to allow an employee who has worked for the employer for at least 30 days to take up to five days of unpaid leave following a failed adoption, failed surrogacy, miscarriage, stillbirth or an unsuccessful assisted reproduction. Employees must take the leave within three months of the event, but do not need to take the days off consecutively. Employees may choose to use any accrued and available paid sick leave or other paid time off.

Pregnancy disability leave. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) provides eligible employees with unpaid, job-protected time off when they are unable to perform essential job functions due to pregnancy, child birth or a pregnancy-related condition for up to four months. See California Code of Regulations, 7291.7.

Voting leave. Employees are entitled to paid time off of up to two hours to vote in a statewide election. See California Elections Code Section 14000.

Jury duty and court attendance leave. Employees are entitled to take time off to serve as jurors at an inquest or a trial. Employees are also entitled to time off when they are victims of a crime and are required to appear as witnesses. See California Labor Code Section 230.

Crime victims leave. Employers, regardless of size, must provide unpaid time off for a victim of a serious or violent felony to attend judicial proceedings related to the crime. The term "crime victim" applies to an employee who is a victim, the immediate family member of a victim, the registered domestic partner of a victim or the child of a registered domestic partner of a victim. See California Labor Code Section 230.2.

Leave for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. All employers, regardless of size, are prohibited from discharging, discriminating or retaliating against an employee who is the victim of domestic violence, a victim of sexual assault or a victim of stalking, and who takes time off from work to obtain or attempt to obtain any relief, such as a restraining order. Employers with 25 or more employees are to provide unpaid time off for victims of domestic violence, as defined by Family Code Section 6211, to seek medical attention for injuries caused by domestic violence or sexual assault, to obtain services from a domestic violence shelter, program or rape crisis center, to obtain psychological counseling or to participate in safety planning or other actions as a result of domestic violence or sexual assault. See California Labor Code Section 230.

Organ donor/bone marrow donor leave. State employees who have exhausted all available sick leave must be permitted to take a leave of absence with pay for up to 30 days for the purpose of organ donation and up to five days for bone marrow donation. Private employers with 15 or more employees must permit a leave of absence with pay for up to 30 days for the purpose of organ donation and up to five days for bone marrow donation. As of January 1, 2020, an additional unpaid leave of up to 30 business days must be granted to an employee donating an organ. See California Labor Code 1510, as amended by AB 1223.

Family crisis leave. State employees are entitled to take leave and use any eligible leave credits available to them for the purpose of attending to certain family crisis situations, including, but not limited to, divorce counseling, family or parenting conflict management, or family care urgent matters or emergencies.

Volunteer civil service/emergency responder leave. Employers must provide unpaid time off to employees who are required to perform emergency duty as volunteer firefighters, reserve peace officers or emergency rescue personnel. See California Labor Code Section 230.3. Employees who serve as volunteer firefighters and who work for an employer with 50 or more employees must be permitted to take up to 14 days of leave per calendar year for the purpose of engaging in fire or law enforcement training. See California Labor Code Section 230.4

Civil Air Patrol leave. Private and public employers in the state of California with more than 15 employees must provide at least 10 days per calendar year of unpaid Civil Air Patrol leave to an employee responding to an emergency operational mission of the California Wing of the Civil Air Patrol. Civil Air Patrol leave for a single emergency operational mission cannot exceed a period of more than three days, unless an extension of time has been granted by the governmental entity that authorized the emergency operational mission and the extension of the leave is approved by the employer. See California Labor Code Section 1500-1507.

Military spouse leave. All California employers with 25 or more employees must provide an unpaid leave of absence for spouses of military personnel who work 20 hours or more per week and who provide notice that their spouse will be on leave from deployment. See California Military and Veterans Code 395.10.

Military and reserve duty leave. An employee who is a member of the reserve corps of the U.S. Armed Forces, the National Guard or the National Militia may take a leave of up to 17 days per year while engaged in military duty. See Military and Veterans Code Section 394.5.

School visitation leave. Employers with 25 or more employees working at the same location must allow a parent, a grandparent (with legal custody) or a guardian to take up to 40 hours off per year to participate in activities at his or her child's school (grades K-12), including a day care facility, if the employee provides the employer with reasonable notice. This time off may not be counted against an attendance policy or otherwise held against the employee. See California Labor Code 230.8. All employers must allow an employee who is the parent or guardian of a pupil to take time off to appear in the pupil's school at the request of the pupil's teacher, if the employee, prior to taking the time off, gives reasonable notice to the employer that he or she is requested to appear at the school. See California Labor Code Section 230.7. Effective January 2016, employers must also allow employees to take job-protected time off to find, enroll or reenroll their children in a school or with a licensed child care provider.