Yes, advance leave can be granted to an employee who is ill due to an infectious disease, such as COVID-19, or must care for a family member who is ill.
However, while sick leave may be advanced at an agency’s discretion, it is not an employee entitlement. The sick leave regulations allow an employee to be advanced sick leave for exposure to a quarantinable communicable disease, subject to the limitations below:
Yes. An employer may encourage or require employees to telework as an infection-control or prevention strategy, including based on timely information from public health authorities about pandemics, public health emergencies, or other similar conditions. Telework also may be a reasonable accommodation. Read more about other health and safety measures on our Infectious Disease page.
If telework is being provided as a reasonable accommodation for a qualified individual with a disability, or if required by a union or employment contract, then you must pay the same hourly rate or salary.
If this is not the case and you do not have a union contract or other employment contracts, under the FLSA employers generally have to pay employees only for the hours they actually work, whether at home or at the employer’s office. However, the FLSA requires employers to pay non-exempt workers at least the minimum wage for all hours worked, and at least time and one half the regular rate of pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek. Salaried exempt employees generally must receive their full salary in any week in which they perform any work, subject to certain very limited exceptions.
If exempt employees cannot work from home, and cannot come into work, an employer must pay the employee unless the exempt employee does not work for the entire workweek.
"All of us are depending on essential workers to protect our health, safety, and well-being during this pandemic and ensure our economic and national security in the future. Without essential workers, we would not have a path out of this pandemic. Essential workers enable us to shelter-in-place by putting food on shelves, transporting health workers, ensuring clean water, working across our healthcare system to protect our health and safety, and caring for the elderly and critically ill — all while putting their lives and their families’ lives at risk. "
–Essential Worker Bill of Rights
from National Women's Law Center