The Build Back Better Act and Its Prospects for Federal Paid Family and Medical Leave

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

The country’s patchwork of state and local paid leave laws continues to evolve and impose perplexing and burdensome compliance obligations on even the most well-intentioned employers. A federal paid leave mandate affecting private employers, and with it a possible reprieve from the patchwork, has eluded lawmakers in Congress for years. The Build Back Better Act (“BBBA”) is the latest Congressional effort to enact a federal paid leave mandate, in this case a paid family and medical leave (“PFML”) program.

During this episode of “Take It or Leave It,” Ilyse Schuman, Senior Vice President, Health Policy at the American Benefits Council, joins co-hosts, Josh Seidman and Meg Toth, to discuss the history and current status of the BBBA, details of the BBBA’s PFML proposal, such as amount of weeks, qualifying absences, coverage and eligibility, and compliance options, and how the current PFML proposal would interact with the existing federal FMLA, as well as with state PFML programs and employer policies.

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