Bill would pay workers during qualifying family or medical leave

The Department of Workforce Development would pay family and medical leave insurance benefits to eligible covered individuals. Covered individuals would include workers who earned at least $1,000 during the base period and self-employed people who elect coverage; benefits would cover family or medical leave. A claimant could not receive these benefits for a period also covered by unemployment benefits or workers’ compensation for total disability. Self-employed people would have to elect coverage and generally keep it for at least three years. Benefits would generally replace 90 percent of earnings up to half the state average weekly wage and 50 percent of earnings above that level, subject to a weekly maximum. Workers could receive benefits continuously or intermittently, but could not receive benefits for leave lasting less than one day. Contributions would apply to wages earned after January 1, 2027, and benefit eligibility would apply to leave beginning on or after January 1, 2028, subject to the collective bargaining agreement exception.

Employers with at least 50 permanent employees would have to allow covered employees to take family leave for listed family-care, military-duty, abuse-related, and child-placement reasons. Covered leave could include caring for a family member with a serious health condition, handling a family member’s covered active duty, and responding to domestic abuse, stalking, or sexual abuse. Abuse-related leave could be used for medical care, counseling, victim services, relocation, or related legal proceedings. An employer could require active-duty certification and could require self-attestation for abuse, stalking, or sexual-abuse leave. Foreseeable active-duty leave would require notice in a reasonable and practical manner. The proposed limits would be 12 weeks for listed family-leave reasons and 14 weeks for a combination of covered family-leave reasons in a 12-month period. Birth, adoption, and foster-care leave would apply when leave begins within 52 weeks of the birth or placement; other listed reasons would apply when the qualifying event or condition occurs.

The Department of Workforce Development would collect contributions, run the insurance program, and enforce protections against interference or retaliation. Employee and employer contributions would fund the trust account; employers with 50 or fewer employees would receive reduced contribution rates, while self-employed participants would pay one-half of the required contribution. Employers would withhold the employee share from wages and pay any required employer share. The department could investigate complaints and order remedies such as leave, reinstatement, back pay, and reasonable attorney fees. Employers would have to post and provide notices about leave rights and insurance benefits, with required language translations in some workplaces. The department would administer the program through rules, forms, claims processing, outreach, and annual reports. The proposed system would receive a $258.5 million general-fund transfer for the 2025-27 fiscal period, and the department would receive additional positions to administer it.