Decisions at a time like this can be tricky – the ‘as-normal’ decision-making processes may not work. In a time of emergency, new information arises so quickly it feels impossible to keep up. But we are here to help you through these uncertain times.

Below are some common scenarios that can help you come to a solution when you need to make tough and quick decisions during an emergency.

Throughout this guide, you will see the following terms, abbreviations and acronyms.

  • FFCRA: Families First Coronavirus Response Act
    • ‘Emergency Sick Pay’: 80 hours of paid sick leave, reimbursable via tax credit, for a qualifying reason under the FFCRA.
    • Expanded family and medical leave: FMLA for a reason qualifying under the FFCRA.
  • UI: Unemployment Insurance

If your business is forced to reduce operations or to close its doors:

You can offer telework:

Great! This is the best-case scenario. Through your leadership, provide clear expectations that help teleworking employees support your business operations from home.

You can’t offer telework to certain employees, or to any:

This is often the case. What will happen when you can’t provide this option? Temporary layoff (furlough) is usually unpaid in private industry. What can employees do for pay?

One option is unemployment insurance. Employees in this situation are eligible to apply for Unemployment Insurance.

You could offer the use of available, accrued PTO (Vacation /Sick pay) to help at the start of an unpaid furlough. This would delay the start of their Unemployment Insurance payments, but they can still claim on their first day of furlough.

  • Alert! You could also offer some other pay to cushion the blow, but you would not receive the federal reimbursement or tax credit for this. Employees in this situation (who are out of a job even temporarily due to the Company’s inability to keep them gainfully employed) are not eligible for emergency sick pay or FMLA (FFCRA).

If your employees who (temporarily or more permanently) don’t qualify for pay under the FFCRA (see above), and you want to offer some pay continuance without tapping into critical cash reserves:

Business leaders like you are the beating heart of our nation’s economy. Your recourse if you want to do this without using critical cash reserves would be to look into an emergency Small Business Loan from the National Small Business Association (SBA).

  • You can find out more from the SBA here.
  • You can apply for a disaster loan with the SBA here.

If your employees are still working (on-location or via telework):

Your employee has child(ren) whose school or daycare is closed:

If that employee needs time off or can’t work because their child’s school or daycare shut down (or their regular caregiver is not available):

Then, your employee qualifies for paid leave under the FFCRA, which means:

  • Up to 80 hours of time off would be covered by the federal Emergency Sick Pay (80 hours at full salary or up to $511 per day, fully-reimbursable via IRS tax credit. This runs concurrently with job protection under the expanded family and medical leave (FMLA).
  • Time off that goes beyond 80 hours (or 2 business weeks, whichever is less, for this reason, qualifies for another 10 weeks of expanded family and medical leave (FMLA) coverage at 2/3 of the employee’s regular pay.
  • Notify Payroll and HR! XcelHR will calculate, track and administer this for you.

If an employee is placed under quarantine by an official authority (doctor, government, etc), is sick with Covid-19 or is caring for someone who is quarantined or sick with Covid-19:

Then, your employee qualifies for paid leave under the FFCRA. This entitles them to up to 80 hours of time off that would be covered by the federal Emergency Sick Pay (80 hours at full salary or up to $511 per day) fully reimbursable via IRS tax credit. This runs concurrently with job protection under the expanded family and medical leave (FMLA). Notify Payroll and HR! XcelHR will calculate, track and administer this for you. Email us here.