The highly anticipated Paid Family Leave (PFL) benefit is becoming a reality for New Yorkers.
As you may have heard, the 2016-2017 New York State Budget includes legislation enabling the richest Paid Family Leave benefit in the nation:
- PFL starts phasing-in effective January 2018, when both women and men can take up to 8 weeks of paid leave to care for a new child or seriously ill family member, among others.
- The benefit level starts at 50% of salary capped at 50% of the NYS average wage (average weekly wage in 2015 was $1,296.48)
- In 2021, when fully phased-in, that benefit increases to 12 weeks and 67% of salary capped at 67% of the NYS average wage. That's going to be almost a $700 average weekly benefit for PFL.
Get more details here >>
All of this is happening as a part of existing DBL law, whereby all DBL policies must begin to cover PFL in 2018.
This is a big change for the DBL market: After all, the core DBL benefit of 50% of salary capped at $170 per week has been the same since 1989; and repeated attempts by the NYS Assembly to increase those benefits haven’t been successful.
How PFL will be specifically implemented depends on pending regulations, which will be issued by June 2017. Get more details here >>
Until that time, it is difficult to predict exact implications for our industry and the marketplace.
But as the industry leader and your expert in New York State DBL we will update you on developments and are creating a dedicated PFL resource & learning center that you will receive an invitation to visit shortly.
Stay tuned... we're here to help!