Pennsylvania lawmakers plan to again propose a statewide program to financially support families during critical medical events such as giving birth and recovering from illness.
Under current state law, access to paid family and medical leave is largely determined by where a person lives and works. Companies, counties, and cities in Pennsylvania set different policies for how long a worker can take off, and under what circumstances they are eligible.
People without paid leave can be forced to choose between caring for a loved one and earning a living. And employers that can’t afford to pay workers during absences can struggle with retention.
Advocates for maternal and child health have historically supported paid leave. Business interests have previously opposed it, arguing such policies duplicate existing unemployment benefits and would constrain their ability to fill positions as needed.
Targeting both groups, lawmakers are pitching the new legislation as “pro-business” and “pro-family,” and argue a paid leave policy would especially benefit rural Pennsylvanians. Here’s what you need to know:
Title: Family Care Act
Sponsors: State Reps. Dan Miller (D., Allegheny), Jennifer O’Mara (D., Delaware), K.C. Tomlinson (R., Bucks), and Natalie Mihalek (R., Allegheny)
Summary: a statewide paid family and medical leave insurance program.
While the latest text for the bill has yet to be released, the legislation has been introduced in past sessions.
The program would allow workers to take paid time off for personal or health reasons such as bonding with a newborn or a newly adopted child, providing care for an older or disabled family member, recovering from a personal injury, and escaping domestic violence, according to the co-sponsorship memo.
The memo says the program would deduct a percentage of an employee’s pay and deposit it into a fund administered by the Department of Labor and Industry. When taking family or medical leave, workers would then get paid a percentage of their wages from the fund.
The memo does not specify the exact percentage, nor does it detail whether employers with existing paid leave programs would have to pay into the statewide fund. However, past iterations of the bill would have allowed companies that used private insurance to opt-out.
A dozen other states have programs similar to the one being proposed, in which payroll deductions fund a public insurance program. (New York uses a private system.)
State Rep. Dan Miller (D., Allegheny) introduced a version of the bill last session. It would have applied to any worker who earned more than $2,718 in a year and allowed for a maximum of 20 weeks of leave, paying out half of an individual’s average weekly wage. Workers would contribute less than 1% of their annual wages to the plan.
He and his colleagues are still negotiating the latest version. Key details include the percentage of a worker’s paycheck that would go into the fund, whether employers would have to cover part of the payment, and the amount to be paid to workers.
Miller told Spotlight PA that the bill would make Pennsylvania’s economy more competitive, calling paid leave a “modern family requirement that makes our state look antiquated without having.”
“A paid leave program has always been a matter of time, not a question of if,” Miller added.
Josie Badger, co-chair of the Family Care Coalition, which advocates for paid leave in Pennsylvania, echoed Miller’s sentiments. She said that the policy would both help Pennsylvania attract more business and benefit current workers and their families during emergencies.
“We have a quickly aging demographic here and those individuals are going to need care from family members,” Badger said.
Last session, state Sen. Devlin Robinson (R., Allegheny) proposed a similar bill that would have provided up to 20 weeks of paid leave.
Robinson chairs the Labor and Industry Committee in the state Senate, where the bill would have to pass through before getting a vote on the floor.
Both Robinson’s and Miller’s bills moved out of committee, but neither received full chamber approval.
In an interview last year, Robinson told Spotlight PA his personal experience caring for his father, who died from prostate cancer, informs his stance on the issue.
"Everyone is going to have to care for a sick parent, or care for a spouse, or welcome the birth of a child, or an adoption," Robinson said.
Miller is “cautiously optimistic” that the legislature will be able to send the legislation to the governor’s desk this session, saying that the planned bills in both chambers are “90% to 95% the same.”
“It’s not like we’re creating the wheel,” Miller said.
