Court Clarifies Paid Sick Leave Calculation for Exempt Outside Sales Employees

Since 2015, California’s Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act (HWHF) has required employers to provide paid sick leave (PSL) to employees, but courts are still working out some of the law’s nuances and details. And a recent California Court of Appeal did just that — after digging into the weeds of the statute’s construction and interpretation, it issued a decision clarifying how employers may calculate PSL for outside sales employees classified as exempt under California law. The court confirmed that employers may calculate exempt outside sales employees’ PSL at their base hourly rate, excluding commissions, so long as that’s how they calculate other forms of paid leave (Hirdman v. Charter Commc'ns, LLC,