Is it the same as California PFL? No. And the taxation of it depends. Please read further for a more complete answer.
In April of 2016, the City of San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement enacted a new paid child leave ordinance. More detailed information about it can be read here:
http://sfgov.org/olse/paid-parental-leave-ordinance
A direct quote from San Francisco's Office of Labor Standard reads as follows:
"During the leave period, Covered Employers are required to provide
Supplemental Compensation in an amount such that the California Paid
Family Leave compensation plus the Supplemental Compensation equals 100%
of the employee’s gross weekly wage . . . the ordinance requires employers to
pay the remainder of the employee’s weekly wages during the 6-week
leave period, up to a cap."
Separately, California's Paid Family Leave (PFL) program treats PFL benefits as taxable for federal purposes, but
not for state of California tax purposes. The California Employment Development Department (EDD) will provide all PFL claimants with a 1099G
form, and then forward a copy of the 1099G to the Internal Revenue Service. California EDD PFL
benefits are not taxable, or reportable, to the California State Franchise
Tax Board. However, they are taxable and reportable to the federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS. In other words, you will include PFL benefits received on your federal income tax return, but not in your California taxable income.
Similarly, then, the San Francisco paid child leave is a supplement to, but not a replacement for, a California state PFL benefit.
Under the ordinance, as promulgated, employers appear to have some discretion (leeway) as to how they will financially source the funding of the supplemental San Franciso payments; for example, they can use up to two weeks of your accrued vacation pay if they wish. The tax treatment of the San Francisco ordinance, as it pertains to individuals, therefore was not made clear upon issuance, leaving the burden of tax reporting up to the employer.
In other words, the ordinance was passed without including clear guidance to the professional tax community, and taxpayers, how the benefits paid through the San Francisco program should be treated for personal income tax purposes.
Therefore, how a taxpayer treats their additional San Francisco child leave income will rely on what tax forms they ultimately receive for the year. For instance, if your employer treats the payments as a taxable substitution for ordinary wages, then that income will appear in Box 1 of your W-2, along with your other yearly taxable compensation. This would make the income taxable at both the federal and California state levels, unless the San Franciso PFL benefits paid by the employer were also classified as nontaxable by the state of California.
On the other hand, if you receive a Form 1099G that shows the San Francisco payments broken out separately, like you should receive for your CA PFL payments, then you would treat the San Francisco income just the same as California EDD PFL income: which is taxable by the IRS, but not the state of California (i.e., same as PFL tax treatment).
Hopefully, as the San Francisco ordinance works its way forward into the future, the City of San Francisco, or state of California, will issue some more formal tax guidance, both for employees and employers. For now, you should treat your San Francisco supplemental income as recommended above, going by the actual tax forms that you receive. Admittedly, this is a gray area of tax law, until the City of San Francisco and the State of California issue some formal tax guidance on this, by way of a revenue statement, bulletin, or law.
Thank you for asking such an important and timely question!
