Great: Another paid leave law pops up before Congress
How many leave laws are enough? And how much more do employers and workers have to pay to fund these laws? For some on Capitol Hill, the answer is simply: More!
To some in Congress, employers aren’t already required to do enough to provide means for workers to take time away from the job to treat a medical condition or care for an ill family member.
Apparently, laws like the FMLA, ADA and FLSA aren’t getting the job done — at least according to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
As a result, the Democratic senator from New York is proposing paid-leave legislation as part of her larger American Opportunity Agenda.
The legislation, entitled the FAMILY Act, would essentially expand the FMLA by creating an independent trust fund within the Social Security Administration. The trust fund would be financed using a new payroll tax that would require employers and employees to each contribute 0.2% of individual wages to the trust fund, with a maximum weekly payroll deduction of $4.36.
The fund would be used to pay workers up to two-thirds of their regular wages when on family or medical leave. A maximum weekly benefit, which would be tied to inflation, would also apply.
Gillibrand says the establishment of the new payroll tax would ensure that the program is entirely self-sufficient and doesn’t add to the federal budget.
In an info packet outlining the FAMILY Act — or Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act — Gillibrand’s office says:
The proposal makes leave available to every individual regardless of the size of their current employer and regardless of whether such individual is currently employed by an employer, self-employed or currently unemployed, as long as the person has sufficient earnings and work history. In this way it would apply to young, part-time and low-wage workers.
The rest of the agenda
Gillibrand says her American Opportunity Agenda would support working families, reward work and help businesses compete.
It has five main goals:
- Establish the FAMILY Act
- Increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 over the next three years and tie future increases to inflation
- Establish a universal pre-kindergarten program
- Provide additional tax breaks to help pay for childcare, and
- Support the passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act.
This post originally ran on our sister website, HRBenefitsAlert.com.
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