Families First Coronavirus Response Act – What You Need to Know

On March 18, the President signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the second coronavirus package.  The law is a broad response to many of the challenges caused by the current and impending spread of COVID-19 and includes provisions that:

• Provide emergency paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave
• Expand unemployment insurance benefits
• Increase federal funding for Medicaid
• Increase funding for nutritional assistance
• Require private health insurers to cover testing for COVID-19

The law includes important changes related to emergency paid sick leave and emergency family and medical leave expansion for employers with fewer than 500 employees. That being said, there are certain exemptions for businesses with fewer than 50 employees if the requirement would jeopardize the viability of their business.

The law provides refundable tax credits for employers to offset the costs of the required leave programs.

You can learn about the new requirements under this law and the tax credits that are available here.