Act Now to Comply with New York’s New Paid Family Leave Law

New York’s Paid Family Leave law goes into effect January 1, 2018 for all employees working in New York (state) for 30 or more days in a calendar year. This includes employees who work from home and who report to employer offices in other states.

The New York Paid Family Leave benefit is different than other paid leave benefits because it requires employers to offer an insurance policy to their employees for paid family leave, which is 100% employee-funded through payroll deductions. Employers can self-insure or purchase a policy from their New York State disability benefits carrier. Though the law permits the plans to be funded by employee payroll deductions, it does permit employers to pay 100% of the premiums as well.

There are a few things that employers with employees working in New York should do now to comply with the New York Paid Family Leave law:

  • Decide whether the Company will self-insure or purchase a rider on its New York state disability insurance policy. Some insurance companies may add the coverage unless you tell them not to.
  • Work with your payroll company to create the employee payroll deductions for funding the paid family leave benefit. The law permits employers to begin making these deductions in July of this year (2017) for leave beginning in 2018. Alternatively, employers may choose to cover the cost of the paid family leave insurance payments and not deduct contributions from employees. The permissible deduction is .126 percent of an employee’s weekly wage up to and not to exceed the statewide average weekly rate which is $1,305.92, making the deduction cap $1.65 per week. These percentages and caps may change annually.
  • Post the required notice in your New York job location(s).
  • Update your FMLA, parental/maternity/paternity leave and PTO policies to address the New York Paid Family Leave law and its interplay with these other policies.

We are happy to help you to revise your policy to comply.

Contact an attorney in our Employment/Labor practice for more information about complying with New York’s Paid Family Leave Benefit.