Good Question: How many paid days do I get for quarantine leave?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — This is pretty important because it’s something many of you are running into with the recent rise in cases. You tested positive, you have to quarantine or it’s your kid who caught the virus. What can you still get paid?

A viewer reached out to News10NBC’s Brennan Somers saying: How many days am I entitled to be paid under NYS law by my employer for being out with COVID?

First off, most employees can get paid through a combination of benefits but if you can still work from home you don’t qualify. What you get depends on the size of employer and the company’s income.

Here’s how it breaks down:

• If you work for an employer with 10 or fewer employees as of January 1, 2020 and your employer made less than $1 million in 2019: Your employer is required to provide you with job protected leave and you may be eligible for a combination of Paid Family Leave and disability COVID-19 quarantine leave benefits.
• If you work for an employer with 10 or fewer employees as of January 1, 2020 and your employer made more than $1 million in 2019: Your employer is required to provide you with five days of paid sick leave. After those days are used, you may be eligible for a combination of Paid Family Leave and disability COVID-19 quarantine leave benefits.
• If you work for an employer with between 11-99 employees as of January 1, 2020: Your employer is required to provide you with five days of paid sick leave. After those days are used, you may be eligible for a combination of Paid Family Leave and disability COVID-19 quarantine leave benefits.
• If you work for an employer with 100 or more employees as of January 1, 2020: Your employer is required to provide you with 14 days of paid sick leave, which should cover the period of mandatory or precautionary quarantine or order of isolation.
• If you work for a public employer: All public employers (for example, town, public school, public college or university, district, county, city, village, fire district and state), must provide at least 14 days of paid sick leave, regardless of how many employees they have.

All employees, regardless of where they work, have their jobs protected throughout COVID quarantine. You can’t be fired for this. There’s a whole process if you get COVID or are a close contact and have to quarantine like gathering the right documents and sending them off where they need to go.

You can find out exactly what to do step by step here.

Also, your boss can’t force you to use regular sick days built up. COVID quarantine leave is added time on top of that.

If your kid’s school closes because of a COVID outbreak, that in itself is exempt. However, if your student is positive and must isolate you may be able to use paid family leave to take care of them.