Legislative Memo: Paid Family Leave

Subject: S.8428/Morahan

(An Act to amend the workers’ compensation law and the insurance law, in relation to temporary disability benefits and providing benefits for family care)

Position: Support

This legislation would create a minimal-cost disability benefit that provides employees financial support and job leave when their families face serious healthcare challenges. The bill would provide a weekly disability benefit – with a limit of $340 per week, in its first year, for up to thirteen weeks – to help an employee care for a newborn or a seriously ill family member.

Federal law does not adequately protect employees facing medical emergencies. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act allows many employees to take twelve weeks of unpaid leave; but many families cannot afford to lose the pay – for them the family leave benefit is no benefit at all. To help working families in New York make sound choices about having children and caring for one another, it is important to ensure that they can support themselves financially at the same time. The proposed family care benefits would repair the breach in the safety net for families – the NYCLU urges the legislature to pass S.8428.

Paid family leave is good for New York’s families

The proposed legislation takes into account the following key realities about families today: there are more women in the paid workforce than ever before; in most families, both parents have outside jobs; many households are headed by single parents; and, family members are living longer and needing more care in the latter part of their lives. The bill also recognizes that most of us rely on extended family networks and properly defines family to include newly adopted children, newly placed foster children, grandparents and grandchildren, in-laws, and domestic partners. Meaningful paid family leave must be designed for these realities and provide adequate support for today’s complex family structures. Providing paid family leave benefits according to S.8428 will help ensure that employees do not have to choose between a regular income and caring for sick relatives - or even having children.

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