Low-wage earners who most need paid family leave can’t afford to take time off. A new bill seeks to raise their replacement pay.
María Elena Durazo, a Democratic state senator from Los Angeles, is renewing the fight for equitable paid family leave, hoping to make it a realistic option for more low-income Californians.
California became the first state in the nation to implement paid family leave in 2002. Nearly every private sector worker pays a 1.1% tax from each paycheck, which goes toward State Disability Insurance, which pays for paid family leave and disability insurance.A recent analysis from the California Budget & Policy Center shows the program is still a far reach for most low-income workers.
“In recent years, we have significantly expanded job protections for workers out on family and medical leave. We have made little progress in addressing lost income,” she said. “I had been waiting to be a parent for a long time, so I was devastated when I had to go back to work,” Sandoval said. Now she is 7, but he says he can’t imagine how he would have survived her being an infant during the pandemic. “I can’t even sit here and think about that; it’s crazy.”
When Newsom vetoed AB 123, a similar bill by former Senator Lorena Gonzalez last year, he said increased wage replacements would saddle employees with “significant new costs.”By removing the taxable wage ceiling, the highest amount of wages that are subject to the State Disability tax, higher-income individuals who make more than $145,000 would continue contributing 1.1% of their wages to the SDI fund.
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