By race/ethnicity, the proportion favoring paid family leave ranged from 81 percent of whites to 85 percent of Hispanics and 94 percent of blacks. The survey of California adult residents found wide public support for paid family leave in every segment of the population, with 85 percent of respondents approving. It costs employers nothing.Ī report we coauthored for the California Family Leave Research Project analyzed two recent surveys, one of California residents and one of California employers. As a result, the new 6-week paid leave benefit is entirely employee-funded and state administered. Despite the modest costs for this benefit, however, California employers objected strongly to the law’s passage. Employees can collect 55 percent of their weekly salaries up to a maximum of $728 a week for up to six weeks while on leave from work to care for a new child or ill family member.

Thousands of Californians will now be spared the impossible choice between caring for a seriously ill family member and bringing home a paycheck – a dilemma far too many workers in the rest of the country still face.Īs an add-on to California’s State Disability Insurance (SDI) program, premiums for six weeks of paid family leave are pennies a week for a minimum wage earner ($14 a year) and the cost of a cup of coffee a month for an average worker (about $27 a year). While the 1993 federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) grants 12 weeks of unpaid family leave to eligible employees at large companies, many working families cannot afford to take the time off work without pay. The new Paid Family Leave Law provides most Californians with six weeks of partial pay when they take leave from work to care for a seriously ill parent, spouse, child, or domestic partner, or to bond with a new baby, foster, or adopted child. Our research shows that this change is wildly popular – and it may also be good for business. California made history on July 1, when it became the first state in the nation to provide its workforce with comprehensive paid family leave.

California paid family leave