Both DC and Maryland may be coming closer to implementing paid leave on a statewide (or District-wide) basis in the near future. Employers should pay close attention to the proposals as they move through the legislative process.
DC Paid Family Leave
In DC, the City Council passed by an 11-2 margin the Universal Paid Leave Amendment Act of 2016, a proposal to provide eight weeks of parental leave, six weeks of family leave and two weeks of medical leave to employees working for private employers in the District, regardless of where they reside. The latter two provisions were only added to the bill on the morning of the initial vote, after it appeared that efforts to eliminate medical leave from the bill had been successful. DC already mandates paid sick leave of up to 7 days per year under a law that went into effect in 2014. The City Council gave preliminary approval to the bill on December 6; a final vote is scheduled for December 20.
If the bill passes, DC will become the first jurisdiction in the country to provide paid family leave that is entirely funded by a tax on employers. The new law would impose a .62 percent payroll tax to fund the paid leave program. Benefits are not expected to begin until 2020, to allow the District to put systems into place to collect the tax and distribute funds. When employees take leave, they will be able to draw pay from a citywide pool. Workers will get 90 percent of their pay, up to 1.5 times the minimum wage (in 2020, at $15 per hour, that would be equivalent to $46,800). Any amount over that would be paid at 50 percent, capped at $1,000 per week.
Maryland Paid Sick Leave
In Maryland, Governor Hogan has advised of his plan to introduce a proposal in the General Assembly requiring private employers with more than 50 employees to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave to employees who work at least 30 hours per week. Notably, the state-wide proposal, if it passed, would pre-empt local legislation. Currently, the only jurisdiction in Maryland with a paid leave law on the books is Montgomery County; if passed, the Governor's bill would supersede the more generous Montgomery County paid sick leave law.
Various paid sick leave proposals have failed to pass in the General Assembly for the past few years. However, political momentum for paid sick leave continues to grow, and a proposal from a Republican Governor that is more limited that some prior proposals may have a better chance of passing.
The DC bill looks likely to pass the City Council, and if the current votes hold through the second vote, the bill will be veto-proof even if Mayor Muriel Bowser does not support the bill. However, given the incoming Republican majority in Congress, which has the authority to disapprove DC laws, it is unclear at this time what the future of the bill will be.
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