N.Y. needs equity in paid leave

New York State’s social safety net for workers and their families has a huge gap. Our medical leave program, once a nationwide model, is no longer delivering on its promise to protect New York workers and their families in their time of need.

Just a few years ago, we made great strides in protecting vulnerable workers when we enacted Paid Family Leave (PFL), delivering wage-replacement benefits and job protections when workers leave the job to bond with a newborn child or take care of a sick or disabled loved one. With Paid Family Leave, New York established itself as a leader in progress among states.

But we also made a mistake; a mistake we must now correct. We didn’t adjust the medical leave program to align it with the new benefits offered through PFL. As a result, we left behind people who have fallen ill. We left behind the people who have been hurt off the job. We left out mothers, including pregnant women, new mothers, and mothers who give birth to stillborn babies. This amounts to a grave disservice for the middle class, who work hard for New York and deserve to be taken care of in a time of need. New York was one of the first six states to enact statutory disability insurance in 1949. Now there’s 12 states with similar laws and four more set to join in 2026.

But by not keeping pace with wages, New York has by far the lowest cap on medical benefits among them. While the partners can earn as much as $1,151 per week through PFL, the individuals themselves have their medical benefits capped at $170 per week. That’s the same level they’ve been stuck at since 1989, when the average annual wage in New York, according to the New York State Department of Labor, was about $27,300. In 2023, it was about $89,000, a 226% increase that has left medical benefits far behind.

The good news is there’s a solution: The Equity in Leave Act. It’s a commonsense update to our state’s medical leave law. To bring it to fruition, I’m looking forward to working with my partners in both houses and Gov. Hochul, who included a similar measure in her State of the State proposal just this month.

The Equity in Leave Act, introduced in December, and the similar commonsense measure the governor is proposing, would align benefits between these two programs to ensure that those who’re suffering from a disability or illness have equity with those who’re caring for them. Our bill also provides parity with PFL by providing those taking medical leave with the same job protections available to those taking PFL, and would phase the benefits increase in over four years.

With equity in paid leave, we will help ensure women recovering from childbirth and bonding with their new child receive the full 20 weeks of paid leave New York intended. Data shows more than 40% of them currently forgo the low-paying medical benefits, cutting their leave by as much as eight weeks.

With equity in paid leave, women who experience a stillbirth will receive a benefit they can live on as they recover. Currently, these women can never tap the higher-paying PFL benefit because they lost their child prematurely. These women need our support.

With equity in paid leave, women will no longer have to choose between following a doctor’s advice to take time off and prioritize their health, or continuing to work in order to pay the bills. For Black women, in particular, this can be a choice between life and death as they are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women.

With equity in paid leave, we’ll make New York more attractive for workers, helping our businesses compete for the best talent in a tight labor market where hiring has proven difficult.

With the Equity in Paid Leave Act, as we did with PFL, we’ll phase in these changes over several years, providing businesses and workers alike the opportunity to prepare for the change and a predictable pathway for making it.

With equity in paid leave, we’ll strengthen the path to the middle class, and help make sure hardworking New Yorkers get the benefits they need while they’re healing and recovering.

Simply put, if New York is going to consider itself a national leader, we can’t be this far behind in providing benefits for disabled workers. We must join Gov. Hochul to pass the Equity in Leave Act now, and reclaim our leading role.

But we also made a mistake; a mistake we must now correct.