California workers will be entitled to five paid sick days, up from the current three, under a new law signed by the governor. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday.

The state’s powerful labor unions lobbied heavily for the legislation, which has been stalled at the Capitol in recent years but gained momentum after the COVID-19 pandemic shed new light on public health and the need for essential worker protections.

Too many people still have to choose between skipping a day’s pay and caring for themselves or their family members when they get sick, Newsom said in a written statement. We made it known that the health and well-being of workers and their families is of paramount importance to California’s future.

Newsom’s decisions on labor laws have come under scrutiny amid ongoing worker strikes, as the unions that helped him get elected and avoid a recall criticized him for recent vetoes of legislation, including bills to give striking workers unemployment benefits and provide OSHA protections for domestic workers.

The bill signed Wednesday was praised by the California Labor Federation and Service Employees International Union in California, which sponsored the expansion of sick leave, and comes after Newsom also received praise from unions for signing a bill to increase wages for fast-food workers increase.

The legislation initially proposed providing seven days of paid sick leave, but that was reduced to five days after hearing testimony from supporters and opponents during the committee process and considering the price.

The law will cost the state and federal government an estimated $34.6 million in the first year and $67.2 million annually thereafter as part of an expansion of the policy to include home health care workers. Additional one-time costs are also expected, such as $1 million for payroll logistics.

There is no federal law requiring paid sick leave, but states like New York and New Mexico provide more than California, even under the new law. Some California cities already require more than the state standard, including Los Angeles, where employers must provide at least six paid days of sick leave.

California workers are forced to lose wages when they are sick because their employers do not provide enough paid leave, supporters of the bill say. prevent by staying at home.

However, a long list of business groups opposed the bill, warning that not all employers could afford the increase and that confusion over enforcement could expose companies to lawsuits over leave disputes.

The California Chamber of Commerce opposed the bill Newsom signed Wednesday, but supported an alternative bill that extended sick leave to five days but included provisions requiring employees to provide proof of the reason for their absence.

Some employees have abused the state’s current three-day policy for “non-legal reasons” since it was introduced in 2014, the chamber said. The benefit can be lawfully used to recover from physical and mental illness, to attend medical appointments, or to care for sick family members.

That bill, which would have required workers to provide documentation and written statements to bosses if they needed sick leave, failed to clear the Legislature after labor groups opposed it, calling it “bizarrely punitive” and raising concerns about medical privacy.