Disability boost proposed in budget
ALBANY — New York workers could see an increase in shortterm disability benefits beginning next year for the first time since 1989, under a policy included in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive budget proposal.
Democratic lawmakers who wrote a bill proposing increased benefits for the temporary disability leave program say that Hochul’s proposal falls short of their ambitions, but they are encouraged there is agreement on updating the program. State Sen. Jessica Ramos and Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages have proposed legislation that would increase weekly pay and expand paid family leave benefits for New York workers.
Temporary disability leave, which is offered to non-government workers who have been in their jobs at least a month, allows employees experiencing a physical disability, mental health problem or illness to take up to 26 weeks per year with pay. The benefit is funded by paycheck deductions and employer contributions.
Hochul’s proposed increase would raise the medical leave benefit from 50 percent of a worker’s average weekly pay to 67 percent, with a maximum of 67 percent of the average weekly wage of New York workers, as calculated annually for the prior year. The budget proposal would phase in the benefit levels, not reaching its final amount until 2029.
The existing benefit maximum of $170 per week was set in 1989 and would be valued at more than $430 per week when factoring in inflation.
Solages said that her and Ramos’ bill would raise the benefits to 67 percent of an employee’s weekly wage, not to exceed 67 percent of the state’s average weekly wage, starting in 2025. For workers making less money, the benefits would increase to 90 percent of an employee’s average weekly wage, not to exceed 50 percent of the state’s average weekly wage.
For Solages, she believes the timeline outlined in her bill remedies problems she sees with the current temporary disability insurance program far more quickly than Hochul’s proposal.
“Every month, every year that we wait, is really just another New Yorker falling through the cracks of our health care system and of our paid medical leave system,” Solages said. “All we’re saying is that we want to modernize the system that we have currently now because we can’t wait because so many New Yorkers are facing serious economic consequences.”
Ramos and Solages also said
during a news conference last week that their proposal would guarantee job security. Workers taking time off under the temporary disability insurance program do not currently have a guarantee that they can have their job back upon their return, Solages said.
Following a reform to the paid family leave program implemented in 2018, workers can get 67 percent of their average weekly salary, not exceeding 67 percent of the state average, which reached $1,131 in 2023, according to A Better Balance, an advocacy organization pushing for the bill sponsored by Ramos and Solages.
The changes to paid family leave allow for time off to care for a sick family member or for a new child for up to 12 weeks after someone has been working in their job for at least six months. Those changes were celebrated by the Democrats, but created a situation where a worker can get more compensation while taking time off to care for a family member than they can while dealing for their own illness.
“There’s paid family leave, but there’s no paid ‘me’ leave,” said Assemblywoman Joanne Simon, a Brooklyn Democrat. “And I think that that’s really an outrage and a tremendous oversight.”
Solages and Ramos also said that their bill would streamline the process to allow short-term disability benefits to go to workers who experience any outcome of pregnancy, including birth, stillbirth, miscarriage and abortion.
“The state has a limited pool of money and there are economic challenges happening to employers and businesses in New York state, but I truly believe that as a Legislature and with the governor by our side, we can implement a paid leave program that brings dignity to the workers,” Solages said.