Under California Labor Code Section 233, known as the Kin Care law, you can use at least half of the paid sick leave you accrue each year to care for a sick family member, and your employer must treat that time exactly like sick leave taken for your own health.1California Legislative Information. California Code LAB – Section 233 The law doesn’t give you extra leave. It unlocks leave you’ve already banked.
Every California employer that provides paid sick leave is covered, whether the sick leave is offered voluntarily or required by the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act. Government agencies are included. Headcount doesn’t matter.
How Much Sick Leave You Can Use for Family
Section 233 guarantees you can use at least the amount of sick leave you would accrue over six months at your current rate.1California Legislative Information. California Code LAB – Section 233 For most employees accruing at a steady pace, that’s roughly half of what builds up in a year.
Here is what that looks like against the current state minimum. Since January 1, 2024, California employers must provide at least 40 hours (five days) of paid sick leave per year.2California Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions An employee accruing at the statutory floor of one hour per 30 hours worked earns about 20 hours of sick leave over six months of full-time work. That 20 hours is the Kin Care minimum. If your employer provides more generous sick leave or you accrue faster, your Kin Care entitlement scales up with it, because the calculation always tracks your own rate.
Employers can cap total sick-leave accrual at 80 hours and limit annual use to 40 hours, but those caps apply to personal and Kin Care use combined.3California Legislative Information. California Code LAB – Section 246 They cannot set a separate, lower cap on the Kin Care portion.
You decide when a sick day is a Kin Care day. The statute gives that choice to the employee alone, and your employer cannot override it or force you to use a different type of leave first.
Who Counts as a Family Member
Section 233 borrows its family-member definition from Labor Code Section 245.5, which reaches further than many employees expect:4California Legislative Information. California Code LAB – Section 245.5
- A child, including a biological, adopted, foster, or stepchild, a legal ward, or a child you stand in loco parentis to, regardless of age or dependency.
- A parent, including a biological, adoptive, foster, or stepparent, a legal guardian, or someone who stood in loco parentis to you when you were a minor. A parent of your spouse or registered domestic partner also counts.
- A spouse or registered domestic partner.
- A grandparent.
- A grandchild.
- A sibling.
- A designated person whose relationship with you is like a family relationship, even without a blood or legal tie. You identify this person at the time you request leave.
The designated-person category was added in 2023 by Assembly Bill 1041, which amended Section 245.5. Because Section 233 pulls its definition straight from that statute, the expansion carries into Kin Care. A close friend who functions as family, or any person whose relationship with you works like a family bond, can qualify.
What You Can Use Kin Care For
Kin Care covers the same reasons California’s paid sick leave law covers when applied to a family member: diagnosis, treatment of an existing health condition, and preventive care such as annual checkups or vaccinations.2California Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions A child with a fever, a parent’s medical appointment, a spouse recovering from surgery, these all fit.
What Your Employer Cannot Do
Kin Care leave must be treated identically to leave taken for your own health. Any condition that applies to personal sick leave, including call-in deadlines, minimum-notice policies, and doctor’s-note requirements, applies the same way to Kin Care. Your employer cannot layer on stricter requirements because the leave is for someone else.
The anti-retaliation protection is direct. Section 233 prohibits firing, threatening, demoting, suspending, or otherwise punishing an employee for using or trying to use Kin Care leave.1California Legislative Information. California Code LAB – Section 233 Section 234 goes further. Any attendance or absence-control policy that counts Kin Care leave as an occurrence leading to discipline is automatically a violation, with no need to prove the employer meant any harm.5California Legislative Information. California Code LAB – Section 234 A no-fault attendance system that assigns points for every absence, with no carve-out for Kin Care, breaks the law on its face.
How Kin Care Fits with CFRA and FMLA
Kin Care doesn’t extend the maximum leave period under the California Family Rights Act or the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, and Section 233 says so expressly.1California Legislative Information. California Code LAB – Section 233 These are different tools.
CFRA and FMLA provide up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave per year for serious health conditions, but that leave is unpaid unless you substitute accrued paid time.6U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions An employer can require you to use accrued paid sick leave at the same time as FMLA leave, and when that happens the days count against both. Kin Care only reaches the paid sick days you’ve banked. It is not weeks of job protection.
Practically, if a family member has a serious health condition, CFRA or FMLA protects your job for up to 12 weeks, and your Kin Care hours let you keep getting paid during part of that time. Once your sick leave bank runs out, Kin Care adds nothing more. FMLA and CFRA also carry eligibility thresholds based on hours worked and employer size that Kin Care doesn’t share.7U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #28: The Family and Medical Leave Act Kin Care requires only that you have accrued sick leave, so it reaches employees who wouldn’t qualify for the longer leaves.
Documentation and Notice
If your employer requires a doctor’s note or other documentation when you call in sick for yourself, the same requirement, and nothing more, applies to Kin Care. Your employer cannot demand a detailed diagnosis for your family member that it wouldn’t demand for you, or require disclosures beyond what its standard sick leave policy already asks.
For notice, use your employer’s regular call-in procedures. Give advance notice when the need is foreseeable, such as a scheduled surgery, as the policy requires. In an emergency, notify your employer as soon as reasonably possible, the same way you would for your own sudden illness.
If Your Employer Denies or Punishes Kin Care Use
The California Labor Commissioner’s Office enforces Section 233. If your employer denies a valid Kin Care request, retaliates against you for using it, or counts it against you in an attendance policy, you can file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner or bring a civil lawsuit.2California Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions
Available remedies include reinstatement if you were fired or demoted, recovery of actual damages or one day’s pay (whichever is greater), and other equitable relief.1California Legislative Information. California Code LAB – Section 233 In a civil suit, the court can also award reasonable attorney’s fees. The one-day’s-pay floor matters when actual losses are hard to quantify: even without large provable damages, the statute guarantees a minimum recovery.
Because Section 234 makes attendance policies that penalize Kin Care leave automatic violations, employees in those situations often have a straightforward case. Intent is not part of the proof. The policy itself is the violation.5California Legislative Information. California Code LAB – Section 234