Federal, Connecticut, Washington D.C., Oregon, and New Hampshire Paid Family Leave Developments

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

As proposed federal paid family leave (“PFL”) legislation bounces around Capitol Hill, 2020 and 2021 saw PFL developments in a number of jurisdictions. These include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington, and Washington, D.C. The most recent of these developments include: (a) New Hampshire enacted a voluntary paid family and medical leave (“PFML”) program (June 2021); (b) the full set of Massachusetts PFML covered absences went live (July 2021); (c) Rhode Island amended its PFL law to expand the number of weeks benefits are available to eligible workers (July 2021); and (d) Washington, D.C. amended its PFML program to, among other changes, expand the scope and amount of covered benefits available to eligible workers (August 2021).

Part IV of the Seyfarth Paid Family Leave Series examines the most recent PFL and PFML developments at the federal and state levels, including updates on the PFML programs in Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Oregon, New Hampshire, Washington, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The Federal developments will focus on the status of the PFML proposal formerly known as the Building an Economy for Families Act (BEFA), which is now the Universal Paid Family and Medical Leave section in the Build Back Better Act (BBBA), and the sunsetting of FFCRA tax credits for covered employers. 

Specific topics include: 

• Overview of the current state and local PFL landscape.
• Discussion of the Federal BBBA PFML proposal, including substantive highlights, open questions, and updates since the proposal was converted from BEFA and released in the House Ways and Means Committee’s Budget Reconciliation text. 
• PFML program updates and overviews for Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Oregon, New Hampshire, Washington, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. These updates include insights into the Connecticut PFML program that becomes available to employees in January 2022 and amendments to the Washington, D.C. PFML program that went into effect on October 1, 2021.
• Discussion on coordination of benefits considerations when administering employer-provided benefits with state PFL and unpaid family leave mandates, and the federal FMLA.

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