Regardless of the prospect of government mandates, a number of private businesses have recently decided for their own reasons (coronavirus or otherwise) to provide paid sick leave benefits to their employees.  Darden Restaurants, parent company of the Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Capital Grille and other brands, announced this week that it will now provide paid sick leave for hourly workers at all of its restaurants – a number reportedly totaling 180,000 workers. Hourly employees will accrue paid sick leave at the rate of one hour leave for every 30 hours worked. Likewise, supermarket chain Trader Joe’s is amending its sick leave policy through April 15 to reimburse employees for sick time taken up to 7 days leave, subject to the manager’s discretion. And McDonald’s Corporation announced this week that it would pay those employees at corporate-owned stores who may be required to quarantine for 14 days as a result of the coronavirus. Similarly, Starbucks, having already closed a Reserve Roastery in Seattle due to the pandemic, announced that it will pay quarantined employees and others who may have been diagnosed with or exposed to those diagnosed with the virus up to 14 days catastrophe pay. And finally, although it doesn’t appear to provide any benefit for hourly workers, last week Chipotle announced that it was experimenting with an expanded employee benefit granting senior level employees with unlimited paid time off subject to the approval of the employee’s manager and capped at 3 weeks per request. In addition, the company claims it is also expanding existing maternity and parental leave benefits for eligible workers and corporate employees.