California Paid Family Leave

Women need a healthy balance between work and family life but too many are forced to choose between care giving and employment responsibilities due to economic necessity. In January 2004, California became the first state to offer up to six weeks of paid family leave to care for a new baby or a seriously ill family member. ERA is working in coalition with others to ensure that there is broad awareness and successful implementation of California’s new law. ERA expects this work will pave the way for enactment of similar legislation in other states.

Paid Family Leave uses workers’ own contributions—an estimated average cost of $27 per worker per year—to fund their leave. Workers have been paying into the new program since January 1, 2004 through contributions to the State’s Disability Insurance (SDI) program. A minimum wage earner pays $11 per year rather than the $27.

With the added advantage of employee retention and thereby reduced hiring costs, paid leave also allows mothers and fathers to bond with new babies and newly adopted or foster children. This is a critical benefit for many working parents and for hundreds of thousands of low-wage workers who could not afford to take unpaid leave.

Considerable evidence supports the diverse benefits and impact of paid family leave, particularly for children, the elderly, and spouses. A report by economists from the University of Chicago and University of California at Berkeley, confirms that family leave is inextricably linked to health. Paid family leave also supports school readiness and preschool participation by giving parents time to care for their sick children. Research has found that sick children recover faster from illnesses and injuries when tended to by their parents, and children’s hospital stays are a third shorter when parents are present.

But California’s new paid leave law will only help those workers who know it exists and how it works and resources for public awareness are woefully inadequate. According to a survey conducted by UCLA’s California Family Leave Research Project, more than three out of four of the respondents had not heard about the California law, although more than eight in ten were in favor of the concept of paid family and medical leave benefits.

Experience with the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) has shown that it takes several years of sustained and multi-pronged public awareness efforts before many workers become familiar with a new benefit. Unfortunately, the poor, rural, minority, and immigrant parents most likely to lack sick leave, paid vacation days, and other basic job benefits and therefore need paid family leave are also the hardest to reach.

To that end, the Paid Family Outreach and Education Collaborative, a coalition of advocacy and legal service organizations-- including Equal Rights Advocates, Employment Law Center, Labor Project for Working Families, Asian Law Caucus, and the California Women’s Law Center -- has joined together to ensure that California’s new landmark Paid Leave Act (SB1661) fulfills its tremendous potential to improve the health and welfare of families, children, and elderly. After working for years to help draft and enact this pioneering new law, the Collaborative is continuing its work by creating an outreach, public education, and legal assistance initiative to help fulfill the law’s mandate and to assist underserved communities and agencies throughout the state.

What you may not know about Paid Family Leave in California:

• Paid Family Leave is about improving children’s health and supporting working parents.
• Paid Family Leave is 100% employee-funded.
• Paid Family Leave is one part of California’s long-standing State Disability Insurance (SDI) programs.
• Employees need to know more about Paid Family Leave, a program their contributions fund, but the law, as passed, included no funds for outreach and only minimal employee notice requirements.
• Workers may qualify for benefits no matter how long they have worked for their employer or how many employees are at their worksite.
• Domestic Partners are covered, extending the scope of paid leave to thousands who have no recourse to family and medical leave under current federal and state laws.
  
  

What you should know about California Paid Family Leave

At One-Year Mark, California’s Paid Family Leave Law Benefits Thousands of New Parents and Caregivers

What California’s Employment Development Department (EDD) Statistics Say

Learn more about Paid Family Leave

What is California’s Paid Family Leave Coalition?

Background on the Family and Medical Leave Act

California Giving Working Moms Needed Time With Families—press release

“Who Uses California Paid Family Leave”