Did you know . . . 

On March 10, Congress approved the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (signed into law by President Biden on March 11). The Act contains several items of interest for employers, including:

  • An extension of the tax credits for voluntarily providing paid sick and family leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) until September 30, 2021;
  • A voluntary additional 80 hours/10 days of paid sick leave and an additional 10 weeks of paid family leave under FFCRA beginning April 1, 2021;
  • An increase from $10,000 to $12,000 per employee for qualified family leave;
  • An expansion of qualifying events for paid FFCRA leave to also cover (i) COVID-19 immunization; (ii) COVID-19 immunization-related injury, disability, illness, or other condition; and (iii) and wait time for COVID-19 diagnoses and test results;
  • Non-discrimination rules providing no FFCRA tax credit if employers favor highly compensated employees, full-time employees, or employees based on tenure; and
  • Pension plan and apprenticeship program reimbursement for employer payments made under a collective bargaining agreement that could be allocated to paid sick and family leave.

The Act also includes provisions affecting pandemic emergency unemployment assistance, employee retention credit under CARES, veteran rapid retraining programs, the paycheck protection program, dependent care flexible spending accounts, and COBRA continuation coverage, among others.

Contact a member of the Vogel Law Firm employment law team to learn more about the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and how it may affect your organization.