the 45 percent difference. Businesses with more than
50 employees will begin implementing this new law
starting in January 2017. Businesses with 35 to 49
workers must comply with the measure by July 2017.
Businesses with 20 to 34 employees have until January 2018 to comply.
The San Francisco paid leave program will cover
full-time and part-time employees. There will be no
exemptions for small businesses. To be eligible, the
parent(s) have to have been employed by the company for six months. The program will be funded like
an insurance plan for which roughly a dollar a week
will be deducted from employee paychecks; there is
no employer contribution.
In New York State, paid leave coverage begins
January 1, 2018, and then it will be gradually phased
in. In 2018, employees will be eligible for up to eight
weeks of leave a year; up to ten weeks in 2019 and
2020; and up to 12 weeks starting in 2021. Initially, it
will cover 50 percent of a worker’s average pay. It will
rise over a four-year period and eventually replace 67
percent of a worker’s average pay. The cap is set for
two-thirds of the state’s average weekly wage (in 2014
- $1,266.44). For high-salaried New Yorkers, a weekly
max of $848 will mean a big temporary pay cut, but a
big improvement over the current absence of benefits.
Coverage in New York State will include women
and men in heterosexual and same-sex two-parent
households, and it will cover single-parent households. The paid leave may be taken intermittently in
increments of one day or one-fifth of the weekly
benefit. The law provides job protection for the
employee during paid leave absences, and it prohibits
retaliation against the employee for exercising the
right to paid leave.
Eligible employees in New York will be able to
take paid leave to:
• Bond with a new child (including an adopted or
foster child) within the first 12 months after the
birth, adoption, or placement;
• Provide physical or psychological care for the
serious health condition of the employee’s child,
spouse, domestic partner, parent (including step-
parent or legal guardian), parent-in-law, sibling,
grandchild, or grandparent; or
• Address certain exigent needs when a spouse,
domestic partner, child, or parent of the employ-
ee is called to active military service.
On a national level, the U.S. passed the Family
and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) in 1993. The
FMLA entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation
of group health insurance coverage under the same
terms and conditions as if the employee had not
taken leave.2 A few states have expanded the FMLA
coverage by allowing it to last longer or broadening
the eligibility.
For federal government employees, things
changed significantly in January 2015 when President
Obama modernized the federal workplace by signing
a Presidential Memorandum directing agencies to advance up to six weeks of paid sick leave for parents
with a new child, calling on Congress to pass legislation giving federal employees an additional six weeks
of paid parental leave, and proposing more than $2
billion in new funds to encourage states to develop
paid family and medical leave programs.
A handful of states (California, New Jersey, Rhode
Island, and Washington State) have passed parental
leave legislation, but none have included the level of
benefits now decreed in the city of San Francisco
and in New York State. In recent months, the legislatures of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the District
of Columbia have also considered bills for paid family
leave without passage.
Opponents of more lenient paid parental leave
laws believe it will be an economic burden to be
borne by businesses. In California, New Jersey, and
Rhode Island, the states that have passed more expansive leave laws, economic effects of the changes
are being monitored.
3 Of no surprise, the results
show, at this point, that people are more likely to
take time off under the paid leave policies and laws,
especially low-income parents. However, the results
are also demonstrating that the availability of paid
leave is conducive to a greater number of mothers returning to employment following the birth or
adoption of a child. By returning to work, employees
and employers experience workplace longevity, and
