Gov. vetoes bill that would expand paid family leave
California is one of the leading states in the country when it comes to providing paid family leave for employees.
But Governor Gavin Newsom wasn’t ready yet to expand paid family leave in the state for the lower income workers.
On Tuesday, Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 123 authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-san Diego, and passed by the State Legislature. The bill would have increased paid family leave for those at the bottom of the pay scale who receive less than 70 percent of their salary to 90 percent.
California now provides paid family leave for up to six weeks for employees to care for a sick family member or to be with a newborn baby. The vast majority of employees in the state contribute to the program and are eligible for the program.
Bottom income workers receive payments that are 70 percent of their income in the program while other employees receive 60 percent of their income. But advocates of increasing family leave pay say many low income workers, particularly women, African-americans and Latinos don’t take advantage of the program because it simply doesn’t pay enough.
“It’s a shame that workers who pay into our state’s Paid Family Leave program can’t reap the benefits because the program doesn’t provide enough income to live on,” Gonzalez said. “Until we make reforms to the program, low- and middle-income families will continue to be left behind, while their tax dollars subsidize paid family leave for higherincome workers.”
Many full-time minimum wage workers in the state make $29,120 a year and qualify for just 60 percent of their income. That’s a weekly benefit of $337 a week, which is just enough to cover the average rent of a one-bedroom apartment in the state.
The Governor’s own task force stated that share should be raised to 90 percent. The task force stated “one of the leading causes for Californians to forego taking paid family leave is because current benefit levels replace too little of a worker’s wages.”
AB 123 would have implemented the recommendation to raise the paid family leave share
for those who receive less than 70 percent of their salary to 90 percent by January 1, 2025.
California has been among the leaders in providing family paid leave but Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts and Connecticut now provide high wage replacement than California.
There are 18.7 million employees in California who are eligible for the state’s paid family leave program. Funds for the program come from the State Disability Insurance program.
In vetoeing AB 123, Newsom said the bill would “create significant new costs not included” in the 2021 budget. “I look forward to continued partnership with the Legislature to ensure that workers have true access to programs providing family leave,” Newsom said.
Currently California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Washington and the District of Columbia offer paid family leave. It’s estimate one-fifth of the nation’s private sector employees take advantage of paid family leave.
President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “human” infrastructure package also includes paid family leave. If eventually passed all employees in the country would be eligible for paid family leave for 12 weeks beginning in 2023.
The program would work similar to that of California with lowerwage employees having the largest portion of their pay replaced. Democrats say increased taxes on the wealthy would pay for the $3.5 trillion package.