New Jersey Passes Paid Family Leave, But What About NY? (Updated)
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- May
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Will New York be next?
Expanding the state’s Family Leave Act in New York is one of the top issues for Democrats in the state Legislature heading into the last seven weeks of the legislative session.
Democrats are pushing a measure in New York that which would allow employees who care for newborn children or ill family members to take up to 12 weeks a year and receive a maximum of $170 a week while they are off.
Yet Republicans have yet to back the plan.
Legislation signed today by New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine makes it the third state to enact a paid family leave program for its workers.
The law allows workers to receive up to two-thirds of their salary, up to a maximum of $524 per week in 2008, for six weeks over a 12-month period at the birth or adoption of a child or to care for a seriously ill child, parent, spouse or domestic partner, according to the The Fairness Initiative on Low-Wage Work.
The group has a podcast on the measure here.
Updated: The Working Families Party and the Paid Family Leave Coalition called for Albany to follow the Garden State’s lead and finally take action on paid family leave.
“Last year we had the chance to make New York one of the first states in the nation to offer paid family leave,” said Assembly Labor Committee Chairwoman Susan John, D–Rochester.
“Unfortunately it looks like working families are going to have to move across the river if they’re ever faced with the impossible choice of taking care of a sick relative or a newborn child or risking their job. That’s unacceptable. New York should follow New Jersey’s lead and pass this law now.”
This entry was posted
on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 10:58 am by Joseph Spector.
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Two near- bankrupt states searching for a quicker termination. Where is Dr. Kevorkian? Does he do states?
True. Andt in New Jersey they are now proposing putting a “sin tax” on fast food. They get crazier and crazier.
This would be a killer for small businesses. Not only does a business have to pay $170/week for an absent employee, but they’ll likely have to hire someone to fill in while the employee is out on leave.
Instead of applying some critical thinking skills by positing, “Is this a good thing,” and then seeking the answer, Mr. Spector, like his liberal colleagues, simply assumes that it is, and asks, “Why not here, too?”
And then they wonder why journalists get no respect.