Paid family leave: Potential blessing for Pa. workers, challenge for employers

Meagan Paul of Lower Burrell would have loved to have had a paid leave program when her son, Sullivan, was born and she was working.

“I didn’t have it. … You feel like you are committing a crime by taking 12 weeks of unpaid leave,” Paul said during a recent program at the YWCA West­moreland County about the need for the state to adopt paid family leave.

To remedy the situation Paul and others have faced, legislators in the state House and Senate introduced bills to create paid family and medical leave in certain circumstances.

In Paul’s case, she said the lack of paid leave put a strain on their family finances, as they transitioned from a two-income household to one at the time when they were dealing with the added cost of infant-related expenses.

“You’re just watching your bank account go down and down,” Paul said. Having paid family leave to take care of newborns “would just eliminate the stress,” so a parent could focus on the child, she added.

The unpaid leave Paul took under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act requires employers to guarantee workers time off for family or medical reasons for up to 12 weeks. An employee must be offered a job with similar pay and benefits when they return to work, but there’s no guarantee it will be the same position. FMLA has been in effect since 1993, but employers with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from being required to provide it.

The public is behind the push for paid family leave, but the measure now needs the support of state legislators, said Dan O’Brien, policy director for the nonprofit Children First organization based in Philadelphia. During the recent program in Greensburg, O’Brien said he is confident the General Assembly would pass the Family and Medical Leave Act, possibly before the June 30 deadline for adopting the 2025-26 budget.

“There is not a single piece of legislation in Harrisburg that will have a greater impact” than the Family and Medical Leave Act, O’Brien said.

Pennsylvania would not be breaking any ground by passing the bill. Fourteen states and Washington, D.C., have paid family leave laws, including New York and Delaware. Pennsylvania and West Virginia are among seven states that are considering a paid family and medical leave bill this year, according to Onpay, a payroll processing software provider.

Some states are financing the benefit through a payroll deduction system where only employees fund the account and others have the employer share the burden.

Senate, House bills

O’Brien’s confidence in the General Assembly’s willingness to pass the paid medical leave has met the realities of politics in Harrisburg, where the House and Senate versions of the proposal have significant differences and have not been presented for a vote by the entire chamber.

The House bill creating the Family Care Act would establish the Family and Medical Leave Program, which would be funded by a payroll deduction system where no more than 1% of a worker’s pay goes toward that fund.

Employees who have worked at least 18 weeks in the past 12 months and earned at least $2,718 during that time would be eligible for up to 20 weeks of paid family and medical leave. The compensation would be based on a percentage of the statewide average pay rate.

Workers would typically have 0.5% of their pay deducted for the paid leave fund, with employers paying the other 0.5%, said Sara Jann Heinze, senior director of policy and advocacy for the Maternity Care Coalition of Philadelphia. The nonprofit seeks to improve maternal and child health through direct service and research.

In the Senate version, a bill for employer-paid sick leave would require employees to pay into the fund, but workers only would get seven days of paid leave with full pay.

Both bills would require employers to transfer money into a state Department of Labor and Industry insurance fund.

Sen. Devlin Robinson, R-Mt. Lebanon, chairman of the Senate labor and industry committee, plans to introduce a paid family leave bill this session, said Eric Kratz, executive director of the committee.

Robinson had a paid family leave bill last session, but it was never brought to the Senate for a full vote. Under that proposal, an employee who worked at least 18 weeks in the past year and earned about $2,700 during that period was eligible for 20 weeks of paid leave.

Another Senate bill would give workers six weeks of unpaid leave to take care of a close family member who has a terminal illness, but not if the employee has a spouse, adult child or parent under the age of 65 who could care for the terminally ill person.

“No one should have to choose between keeping their job and caring for a dying loved one. That’s why I reintroduced legislation to expand FMLA protections to include siblings, grandparents and grandchildren in limited, but urgent situations — when no other family member is able to step in,” said Sen. Christine Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia.

It’s targeted and compassionate, with minimal impact to employers, Tartaglione said. It’s the bare minimum lawmakers can do to support working people through some of the most difficult moments of their lives, the senator said in a statement.

Tartaglione said she also supports the broader paid family and medical leave.

“We can and should act now to make sure no Pennsylvanian has to walk away from their job to care for someone they love” Tartaglione said.

Republicans control the Senate with a six-vote margin, 28 to 22. But Tartaglione said there is strong bipartisan support for the paid family leave bill.

While employers would have to contribute to the family and medical leave fund, the Maternity Care Coalition’s Heinze said it would be beneficial to businesses, because if an employee has to leave, it typically takes a year for a new worker to fully adjust to the job.

Opposition

Republican state Reps. Jill Cooper of Murrysville and Leslie Rossi of Unity, both members of the House Labor and Industry committee, were among those who opposed the bill the committee passed in March on a 14-12 vote. The bill got some Republican support, but has yet to be brought for a vote before the full House, where Democrats hold a slim one-vote margin.

Cooper said she was against the bill because it takes up to 1% of an employee’s paycheck for a payroll contribution into a fund. Cooper said she is opposed to any new taxes.

Rossi could not be reached for comment.

“It’s a multibillion(-dollar) payroll tax and it would impose significant costs on Pennsylvanians and employers,” said Lindsay Andrews, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry.

The bills lack safeguards to avoid abuse and could leave employers open to lawsuits, Andrews said.

The chamber refers to it as an “entitlement program” that provides for automatic annual tax increases without input from the legislature or approval of the General Assembly.

The bill would impose what the chamber says are direct and significant cost on employers and Pennsylvanians. It would allow employers to create their own paid leave program, but that is a daunting option, the chamber said.

“It is administratively challenging and we have concerns it will not be functional or practical,” Andrews said.