Paid Family Leave Expansion Effect January 1, 2018

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EFFORTS TO PROVIDE PAID Family LEAVE ON THE Rising

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE MAY 2017 ORANGE Canton LAWYER MAGAZINE

It has been over xx years since the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993¹ went into effect, requiring sure large employers to provide job-protected and unpaid leave to employees for sure medical and family reasons, including bonding time with a new child. At the fourth dimension of this commodity's publication, nevertheless, there is still no federal mandate for paid parental leave, despite that dozens of other adult nations provide for such a benefit—to new mothers and fathers akin. In both 2013 and 2015, federal legislation to provide paid family exit was introduced, but never made its way through the legislative process.^two

In the meantime, many companies have stepped in to endeavor to keep pace with the recent rising trend to provide paid family go out to employees. At least i company has publicly stated their intent in doing and so was to stay competitive in a global marketplace and to serve the American workplace. In conjunction with the birth of Mark Zuckerburg's girl, Facebook announced in late 2015 that information technology was extending its parental leave policy for full-time employees to cover four months of paid get out for all new parents.³ This news came after an announcement past Netflix in August of that year to provide unlimited paid leave to its salaried employees—both new moms and dads—during the first year after a child's birth or adoption.^iv Microsoft followed suit, announcing twelve weeks of paid leave for new parents.⁵

Amazon too announced its paid parental leave policy in late 2015 offering six weeks of paid parental leave for all new parents employed at the company for one twelvemonth or more.⁶ In November 2015, Spotify appear it would offering six months of fully paid parental leave to all total-time employees.^seven In 2016, the trend continued. Netflix expanded its parental go out policy to include hourly workers, offering them between twelve and sixteen weeks paid go out depending on their task.⁸ Other major companies, such as Deloitte, Hilton, Nike, Coca-Cola, Ikea, and Etsy, announced generous paid family get out policies throughout the year as well. Even the Pentagon announced in 2016 that information technology would provide twelve weeks of paid motherhood get out for all uniformed service members.⁹

During the contentious 2016 presidential campaigns, both candidates notably supported paid family leave, albeit in dissimilar forms. Then Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump announced a plan for vi weeks of paid maternity leave, through unemployment insurance, for new mothers whose employers do not guarantee paid exit.^ten Democratic rival Hillary Clinton proposed to ensure that employees taking upward to twelve weeks of leave through the Family and Medical Go out Act would receive at least 2-thirds of their wages, up to a ceiling.¹¹

Earlier this year, federal lawmakers announced plans to reintroduce paid family leave legislation that would create a universal, gender-neutral, paid family and medical leave program.¹² In detail, the new law would provide workers with at least two-thirds pay (up to a cap) for upwardly to twelve weeks of time off for their own health weather, including pregnancy and childbirth, or to care for others. It would do this by creating an independent trust fund within the Social Security Assistants to collect fees and provide benefits. The trust would be funded past employee and employer contributions of ii-tenths of a percentage of wages each, creating a cocky-sufficient programme that would not add together to the federal budget. Lawmakers behind the nib assert exit would be made bachelor 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. As such, the police force would apply to young, part-time, and depression-wage workers. Given that President Trump has expressed support for government-mandated paid leave, at that place is more than a glimmer of promise for such a pecker, which has not made strides in the past.

California passed the nation's first paid go out law in 2002.^xiii The wage replacement portion of the federal paid family leave nib is modeled after successful country programs in California and New Jersey. California'south paid family unit leave program is non really a leave program, but rather a partial wage replacement program administered through the country's inability organization and not past employers. It is fully funded by employees' contributions. Information technology applies to all parents who have off fourth dimension from work to bond with a child within one yr of birth, adoption, or placement as a foster child. It also provides payments to people who take time to intendance for seriously sick family members. Citing how globalization has put pressure on wages and benefits, Governor Brown signed legislation in April 2016 that volition increment the wage replacement rate under California's program from its electric current level of l-five pct to sixty or lxx per centum (depending on the worker's income).^xiv Notably, however, Governor Brownish vetoed a nib which would have required small businesses not covered by the Family unit and Medical Leave Act to provide six weeks of unpaid, task-protected parental go out.

Some cities and states have taken paid parental exit a pace further. In April 2016, San Francisco passed an ordinance requiring employers with xx or more employees (with at least one working in the city) to offer supplemental compensation to all employees, including function-time and temporary employees, who utilise California paid family unit leave benefits for new kid bonding.^fifteen The amount of supplemental compensation an employer would demand to pay is the divergence betwixt the employee's current normal gross weekly wage and country benefits received. Employers with fifty or more than employees are required to comply beginning on Jan i, 2017; employers with 30-5 or more than employees are required to comply commencement on July 1, 2017; and employers with twenty or more employees are required to comply commencement on January i, 2018.

Luckily for city employees, Seattle recently expanded paid exit for city employees who are new parents from four to twelve weeks and created a new iv-week family leave policy for urban center employees who need to care for sick family members.¹⁶ Similarly, in Boston, metropolis employees take been entitled to up to six weeks of paid parental get out since 2015.¹⁷ Boston's ordinance applies to men and women, also equally aforementioned-sexual activity couples. Information technology also applies to each instance of eligible employees' birth of newborns, adoption, surrogacy or other methods, and stillbirths.

In April 2016, New York state passed a paid family law that, when fully phased-in, will allow employees to be eligible for twelve weeks of paid leave when caring for an infant, a family member with a serious health condition, or to relieve family unit pressures when a family fellow member, including a spouse, domestic partner, child or parent, is chosen to active military service.^xviii Paid exit to intendance for a new kid will be bachelor to both men and women, and will include get out to intendance for an adoptive or foster kid. Implementation of New York's paid go out law will be gradual. Beginning January i, 2018, employees will exist eligible for eight weeks of paid leave, earning fifty pct of their weekly pay (upwardly to a cap). The number of weeks of get out and corporeality of pay increases annually until, past 2021, employees volition be eligible for the full twelve weeks of paid leave, earning threescore-vii percent of their weekly pay (up to a cap). New York'due south paid family leave will be funded past a weekly payroll tax of about $ane per employee, deducted from employees' paychecks. As a result, employers will not have to bear the fiscal burden of funding the paid leave benefits provided under the new state law.

In Dec 2016, Washington, D.C. passed a universal paid leave ordinance which gives full- and part-time workers in the metropolis eight weeks of exit at upwards to ninety percent of their full weekly wages for birth, adoption or fostering.19 The nib also provides for vi weeks of family unit leave to look after a sick relative and two weeks for a personal medical emergency. The paid go out program will be funded by a new business taxation that would raise $250 million a year to cover costs. Washington, D.C.'s ordinance covers but private-sector workers, excluding those on city or federal payroll. To qualify, a worker need only be employed in D.C.; residents of other cities and states with jobs in the capital are eligible. Not-profit workers and the self-employed are as well covered.

Amidst the flurry of recent paid family leave action at federal, state, and local levels, as well as from the concern sector, many companies hoping to stay competitive, boost morale, and gain positive media attention, may find themselves wondering how they tin can go far on the action earlier they miss the boat. Before announcing any future paid parental leave policy, however, employers should consider and prepare for the implementation process of such a policy, too equally possible ramifications. For example, employers should set up appropriate forms and acknowledgments in advance, and devise a protocol for management to follow in distributing and using these documents. Management and human resources should be trained on how to roll out the new policy, and understand what not to say when employees request to use get out.

Employers volition want to consider whether they want to provide paid leave on a gender-neutral ground, for how long, and for how much pay. Employers are each uniquely situated and can come upward with paid family leave plans tailored to meet their needs. Employers should as well consider what eligibility criteria they desire their employees to run across before taking leave, and whether the leave should be task-protected. They may too desire to consider whether the paid family leave should run concurrent with other available leaves, and whether a third-party vendor, homo resources, or managers will have the discretion to grant or deny leaves.

Viscid situations should also be contemplated and addressed. For instance, should the paid family unit leave policy be retroactive and utilise to an employee whose infant was born before the policy was implemented? Is an employee permitted to use the leave intermittently? If so, what level of incremental use would the employer deem to exist appropriate? What if an employee gives birth to twins? What if 2 employees accept a child together? Again, each business may have its own reasons for coming out i fashion versus the other on these issues. The point is, it is better to deal with the tough questions earlier they become employee relations problems.

Concluding just not least, it is ever critical to review a company's proposed paid family unit exit policy with an eye towards litigation—both single-plaintiff and class activity cases. More often than not, classes get certified based on written policies alone. It is as well possible that employees could brand discrimination claims with respect to the implementation of the policy. In defence force of those claims, the requisite forms and acknowledgments should be helpful to minimize hazard in that area.

Endnotes

(1) Family Medical Go out Act (FMLA) of 1993, 29 United statesC. § 2601 (2012).

(two) Family unit and Medical Insurance Leave Human action of 2013, H.R. 3712, 113th Cong. (2013); Family and Medical Insurance Get out Human action, S. 786, 114th Cong. (2015).

(3) Kristy Woudstra, Facebook Parental Leave: the Company Expands Its Policy, Huffington Postal service (Nov. xxx, 2015), http://world wide web.huffingtonpost.com/2015/xi/xxx/facebook-parental-leave_n_8683198.html.

(iv) Heather Kelly, Netflix Employees Tin At present Take Unlimited Paid Parental Leave, the Company Announced Tuesday, CNN (Aug. 5, 2015), http://coin.cnn.com/2015/08/04/engineering/netflix-parental-leave.

(5) Julia Greenberg, Microsoft Offers Big Upgrade to Paid Leave for New Parents, Wired (Aug. 5, 2015), https://www.wired.com/2015/08/microsoft-offers-large-upgrade-paid-go out-new-parents.

(6) Martin Berman-Gorvine, Amazon Expands Parental Go out Offerings, Bloomberg (Nov. 16, 2015), https://www.bna.com/amazon-expands-parental-n57982063587.

(seven) Emily Peck, Spotify's New Parental Leave Policy is Pretty Amazing, Huffington Post (Nov. 19, 2015), http://world wide web.huffingtonpost.com/entry/spotify-parental-leave_us_564de6c7e4b08c74b73483fe.

(8) Shane Ferro, Netflix Just Made Another Huge Stride on Parental Go out, Huffington Post (Dec. nine, 2015), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/netflix-paid-parental-go out-hourly-workers_us_56685ae1e4b009377b233a79.

(9) The Editorial Board, The Pentagon'due south New Parental Leave, N.Y. Times (Feb. two, 2016), https://world wide web.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/opinion/the-pentagons-new-parental-leave.html.

(10) Heather Long, Many Women Voted for Trump. Will He Keep His Promises to Them?, CNN Coin (Dec. 6, 2016), http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/06/news/economy/donald-trump-childcare-maternity-get out/.

(11) Megan A. Sholar, Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton Both Support Paid Family Leave. That'due south a Breakthrough, The Washington Mail (Sept. 22, 2016), https://world wide web.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/09/22/donald-trump-and-hillary-clinton-both-support-paid-family-leave-thats-a-breakthrough/?utm_term=.0c8de2f5ab23.

(12) Family and Medical Insurance Leave Deed, S. 337, 115th Cong. (2017); Family unit Act, H.R. 947, 115th Cong. (2017).

(13) Cal. Unemp. Ins. Code §§ 2601, et. seq. (2004).

(14) Patrick McGreevy, Brown Signs California Police Boosting Paid Family-Leave Benefits, Los Angeles Times (Apr. 11, 2016), http://world wide web.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-paid-family-get out-california-20160411-story.html.

(15) San Francisco, Cal., Police Code §§ 330H.i, et. seq. (2016).

(xvi) Office of the Mayor, Mayor Murray, Council Enact Twelve-Week Paid Parental Get out, Increased Wage Transparency for City Employees, Office of the Mayor (February. 13, 2017), http://murray.seattle.gov/mayor-murray-quango-enact-12-week-paid-parental-leave-increased-wage-transparency-city-employees/.

(17) Andrew Ryan, City Quango Approves Paid Parental Leave Measure, The Boston Globe (Apr. 29, 2015), https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/04/29/city-council-approves-paid-parental-go out-for-municipal-employees/6JZ4eVovEtrX7CKDWgWKhP/story.html.

(eighteen) Emily Peck, New York Merely Passed America'south All-time Paid Family unit Get out Law, The Huffington Post (Apr. 4, 2016), http://world wide web.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-paid-family-leave_us_5702ae75e4b0daf53af042b7.

(19) Clare O'Connor, Washington, D.C. Passes Eight Week Paid Parental Leave Bill, Forbes (Dec. 20, 2016), https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2016/12/20/washington-d-c-passes-8-week-paid-parental-get out-bill/#6f5402bf6bfa.

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