Employers Must Now Provide Five Days of Bereavement Leave

Effective January 1, 2023, a new California law requires covered employers (the employer must have 5 or more employees) to offer employees up to five days of bereavement leave. Under the new law, Government Code Section 12945.7, employees who have been employed for at least 30 days may take five days of bereavement leave for a family member, defined as a spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, parent-in-law, sibling, grandparent or grandchild. Bereavement leave need not be taken consecutively, but, it must be completed within three months of the death.