DC Paid Leave Campaign Celebrates the Expansion of the DC Paid Family Leave program to 12 Weeks of Paid Leave

Washington, DC - The DC Paid Leave Campaign, representing a diverse coalition of local businesses, community institutions, service providers, and advocacy organizations, celebrates the announcement from the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) that, as of July 1, 2022, DC workers will have up to 12 weeks of paid leave for parental, medical, and family caregiving needs and up to 2 weeks for pre-natal leave. DC’s Paid Family Leave program has already been life-changing for families and individuals across the District, and expanding paid leave to up to 12 weeks could benefit half a million workers and their families.

No one should have to lose their job or income in order to care for themselves or the people they love. Expanding medical and family caregiving leave is particularly critical to advancing equity for Black and brown workers and low-income families in the District of Columbia. Based on the Department of Employment Services (DOES) January 2021 report, more than 80% of those who applied for medical and family caregiving leave identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian or multi-racial. Additionally, 40% of people applying for these leaves have incomes of less than  $50,000. And 35% of all DC residents who applied for medical leave live in Wards 7 and 8. This expansion of the DC Paid Family Leave program represents a concrete step towards addressing longstanding racial, economic, and health disparities that have only been exacerbated by the pandemic.

The Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Support Act of 2021, which was passed unanimously by the DC Council last August, laid out a plan to expand paid family and medical leave benefits,  if there was enough money to do so in the Universal Paid Leave Fund. Yesterday, the OCFO determined that not only is there sufficient funding to enact the maximum level of benefits authorized by current law — 12 weeks for qualifying parental, medical, or family caregiving leave and 2 weeks for pre-natal leave — but that, in addition, the employer contribution rate could be lowered to 0.26 percent and the program would remain solvent to provide this level of benefits to all DC working families.

The DC Paid Leave Campaign originally called for 16 weeks of paid leave in the campaign leading up to the passage of the Universal Paid Family Leave Amendment Act in 2016. We were certain then that the funding for this program would be more than adequate to provide this level of benefits. We are deeply gratified by this announcement today.

The DC Paid Leave Campaign would like to thank Councilmember Elissa Silverman for her unwavering leadership on this issue, and the many other Councilmembers who have championed a strong paid family and medical leave program. We are also deeply grateful to all the workers, parents, and other individuals who have shared their stories, testified at hearings, and advocated in so many other ways for paid family and medical leave. This program would not exist today if not for the working families who spoke up and took action.

DC Paid Leave Coalition Supports COVID Leave Emergency Legislation

The DC Paid Leave Campaign, representing a diverse coalition of local businesses, community institutions, service providers, and advocacy organizations, supports Councilmember Elissa Silverman’s proposed emergency legislation to extend and expand COVID-related leave, which is currently in place until November 5, 2021.

For workers across the country, lack of access to paid leave has been a significant barrier to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The emergency legislation proposed by Councilmember Silverman would remove that obstacle for workers in the District of Columbia, by ensuring paid time off for vaccination and, if necessary, recovery from any side effects.

This legislation would also extend the existing unpaid leave, created in March 2020, which provides leave for COVID-related purposes.

We applaud this effort to make access to vaccines more equitable and to ensure job protection and economic stability for the District’s most vulnerable workers, as we continue to face the COVID-19 pandemic.

DC Paid Leave Campaign Celebrates DC Council’s Historic Vote to Strengthen & Expand the DC Paid Family Leave program

Washington, DC - The DC Paid Leave Campaign, representing a diverse coalition of local businesses, community institutions, service providers, and advocacy organizations, commends the DC Council’s unanimous vote on the “Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Support Act of 2021” to strengthen and expand the DC Paid Family Leave program. The changes to this effective and life-changing program stand to benefit half a million workers and their families.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, no one should have to lose their job or income in order to care for themselves or the people they love. Expanding Personal Medical leave is particularly critical to advancing equity for Black and brown workers and families in the District of Columbia. Based on the Department of Employment Services (DOES) January 2021 report, more than 80% of those who applied for medical and family caregiving leave identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian or multi-racial. Additionally, 40% of people applying for these leaves have incomes of less than $50,000. And 35% of all DC residents that applied for medical leave live in Wards 7 and 8. The expansion of the DC Paid Family Leave program represents a concrete step towards addressing long-standing racial, economic, and health disparities that have only been exacerbated by the pandemic.

By rejecting the Mayor’s proposed tax cut and restoring the payroll tax rate to 0.62%, the Council is able to fund critical changes to DC’s paid family & medical leave (PFML) program. Our coalition strongly supports the following changes included in the FY22 DC Budget and Budget Support Act:

• Expanding Personal Medical leave from two to six weeks in fiscal year 2022 - for workers who take time off for their medical needs

• Expanding access – especially for the District’s most vulnerable workers – and enabling workers to take the leave to which they are entitled by:

  • Strengthening job protection by conforming with federal FMLA, so workers who return to their job after the pandemic have the job protection necessary to take leave

  • Removing the 7-day waiting period before a worker can access benefits– on a one-year trial basis – and allowing workers to apply for benefits retroactively - within a reasonable period after the leave event has occurred

  • Expanding the period of reported wages used to determine benefits, for one year post-pandemic. By enabling the program to calculate benefits based on the highest 4 quarters of income over the past 10 quarters (instead of 5), this change will mean that workers who lost income during the pandemic will still receive paid leave benefits.

• Planning for future expansion of PFML benefits to twelve weeks for each of Parental, Family Caregiving, and Personal Medical leave – based on the Office of the Chief Financial Officer’s future projections, while maintaining the 0.62% tax rate.

The DC Paid Leave Campaign would like to thank Councilmember Elissa Silverman and Chairman Phil Mendelson for their leadership, and for the strong support from many other Councilmembers to protect and expand the DC Paid Family Leave program. 

DC Paid Leave Campaign Celebrates DC Council’s Historic Vote to Strengthen & Expand the DC Paid Family Leave program

The DC Paid Leave Campaign, representing a diverse coalition of local businesses, community institutions, service providers, and advocacy organizations, commends the DC Council’s vote to strengthen and expand the DC Paid Family Leave program. The changes to this effective and life-changing program stand to benefit half a million workers and their families.

By rejecting the Mayor’s proposed tax cut and restoring the payroll tax rate to 0.62%, the Council is able to fund critical changes to DC’s paid family & medical leave (PFML) program. Our coalition strongly supports the following changes, included in the FY22 DC Budget and Budget Support Act:

• Expanding Personal Medical leave from two to six weeks in fiscal year 2022 (for workers who take time off for their medical needs)

• Expanding access – especially for the District’s most vulnerable workers – and enabling workers to take the leave to which they are entitled, by:

  • Strengthening job protection by conforming with federal FMLA, so workers who return to their job after the pandemic have the job protection necessary to take leave

  • Removing the 7-day waiting period before a worker can access benefits– on a one-year trial basis – and allowing workers to apply for benefits retroactively (within a reasonable period after the leave event has occurred)

  • Expanding the period of reported wages used to determine benefits, for one year post-pandemic. By enabling the program to calculate benefits based on the highest 4 quarters of income over the past 10 quarters (instead of 5), this change will mean that workers who lost income during the pandemic will still receive paid leave benefits.

• Planning for future expansion of PFML benefits to twelve weeks for each of Parental, Family Caregiving, and Personal Medical leave – based on the Office of the Chief Financial Officer’s future projections, while maintaining the 0.62% tax rate.

Jaime Contreras, a Vice President of 32BJ SEIU, the nation’s largest property service workers union, with over 175,000 members in 11 states including over 20,000 Black and Immigrant essential workers in the D.C. area and Baltimore, MD, made the following statement: “Essential workers are grateful for D.C. Council’s decision to strengthen the Paid Family & Medical Leave program by addressing long-standing health, economic and racial disparities that have only been exacerbated by the pandemic. Expanding medical leave from two to six weeks is a great example of how cities and states can and should ensure that all workers have the support they need to care for themselves and the people they love.” 

Nikola Nable-Juris, Staff Attorney at First Shift Justice Project, a nonprofit organization helping working parents in low-wage jobs assert their workplace rights to prevent job loss, said: “Low-income workers – especially mothers and women of color who have been hardest hit by the pandemic – will directly benefit from these changes to DC’s Paid Family & Medical Leave program. We have seen time and time again how barriers to access have blocked our city’s most vulnerable workers from the paid leave benefits they deserve. These much-needed changes will allow more workers to receive benefits when caring for themselves and their families.” 

The DC Paid Family Leave Campaign would like to thank Councilmembers Elissa Silverman and Phil Mendelson for their leadership and for the strong support from many Councilmembers to protect and expand the DC Paid Family Leave program. We call on the DC Council to follow up with this vote during the second budget vote on August 3rd. Especially as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, no one should have to lose their job or income in order to care for themselves or the people they love.

STATEMENT: DC Paid Leave Campaign Celebrates Proposal to Strengthen the Family Leave, Extend Medical Leave Programs

The DC Paid Leave Campaign, representing a diverse coalition of local businesses, community institutions, service providers, and advocacy organizations, strongly supports Committee Chair Elissa Silverman’s proposed Committee report to strengthen the life-changing DC Paid Family Leave program and expand medical leave to 6 weeks for the next year.

Our coalition celebrates these specific wins as part of the report:

• Expanding leave for workers who take time off for their medical needs from 2 to 6 weeks in fiscal year 2022

• Critical changes to the paid leave program policy to enable enable workers to take the leave to which they are entitled:

  • Allowing more workers to receive paid leave by reducing the 7-day waiting period and enabling them to apply for leave retroactively (that is, within a reasonable period after the leave event has occurred)

  • Providing benefits to workers who have earned leave, regardless of employment status at the time leave is needed

  • Strengthening job protection - by conforming with federal FMLA - so that workers have the job protection necessary to actually take leave

  • Expanding the period of reported wages that the program considers when determining benefits.  By enabling the program to calculate benefits based on the highest 4 quarters of income over the past 10 quarters (instead of 5), this change will mean that workers who worked before the pandemic but had no or low income during the pandemic will receive paid leave benefits. 

The coalition supports the Committee’s proposal for future expansion of weeks of leave — based on the CFO's future projections — that makes clear the Council's intent to expand leave to the maximum amount possible based on the 0.62% tax rate. Finally, we support the additional interventions proposed in the report to support those hit hardest by the pandemic.

This report makes common-sense updates ensuring that everyone who’s eligible can use the program and it strengthens the program for the future by creating clear benchmarks for future expansion.  We urge Committee members to vote in favor of the report, and urge Chairman Mendelson to integrate all aspects affecting Paid Leave into the FY22 DC Budget and Budget Support Act.

STATEMENT: The Campaign for DC Paid Family Leave calls on all DC Councilmembers to speak out against cuts to paid family and medical leave

The Campaign for DC Paid Family Leave is outraged that Mayor Bowser has proposed raiding our city’s groundbreaking paid family and medical leave program in order to implement a tax cut that would overwhelmingly benefit the largest corporations in the District. All of us, no matter our race, our zip code, or how much we are paid, need to be able to care for our families. At a time when people most need the support of this valuable program, this shortsighted action would harm DC’s small businesses and working families — especially Black and brown families, who due to systemic racism are less likely to have employer-provided paid family and medical leave. 

We call on the DC Council to:

• reject the Mayor’s proposed tax cuts for businesses

• use surplus money in the paid family and medical leave fund to expand benefits

• make critical programmatic changes to ensure that everyone who is eligible can use our city’s paid leave program.

As the coalition has said from the very beginning, surplus funds should be used as they were intended: to expand benefits for the working families who need them, not provide tax breaks for large companies. We urge the Council to implement a one-year expansion of medical leave and family caregiving leave to 8 weeks, to match the 8 weeks given for parental leave. Currently, the program only pays for 2 weeks of personal medical leave. If we are serious about an equitable recovery from the pandemic, it is critical to expand medical leave. For years, national and local policy experts have said that based on what other states’ leave programs cost, the same payroll tax we have now could actually fund much higher paid leave benefits. The original proposal for Paid Family Leave in DC would have provided 16 weeks of paid parental, family caregiving, and personal medical leave, which is far from the reduced benefits we now have. The Paid Family and Medical Leave program is not over-funded; rather, it under-provides benefits. We support the use of $15 million to help working people who are excluded from federal aid. 

In her proposed budget for the next fiscal year, Mayor Bowser has instead chosen to raid hundreds of millions of dollars from paid family and medical leave to implement wasteful tax cuts. There are many ways the city can help the small businesses that were hit hard by the pandemic. But the Mayor’s proposed tax cut is not a meaningful source of assistance. The paid family and medical leave tax is modest: a 0.62% payroll tax that amounts to just over one-half of one percent. Since it is based on payroll, many businesses that laid off employees during the pandemic have already paid less in taxes than they anticipated. Instead of substantially assisting small businesses, this tax cut disproportionately benefits the largest corporations in the District — it is unnecessary and wasteful.  Essential needs should be funded by asking wealthy individuals and corporations to pay their fair share in taxes, not by weakening programs that have helped thousands of working families stay afloat during this crisis. 

Finally, the paid family and medical leave fund currently shows a surplus in part because so many workers, especially Black and brown people, were laid off or otherwise disqualified from using the program during the COVID pandemic. The Council must make important changes to the program’s rules to address this and ensure that all eligible people can access the program. Specifically, the DC Paid Family Coalition urges the Council to:

1. Ensure that workers have job protection so that they can actually take paid family leave, matching federal law and so that workers who are laid off and hired back by the same company have job protection to take their paid leave.

2. Change the program so that people do not need to be currently employed in order to access paid leave. People who have lost their jobs this past year should not lose access to the paid family and medical leave that their former employers already paid for on their behalf.

3. Protect workers who lost jobs or income during the pandemic. The Paid Family Leave program should look back for a longer time period and base leave benefit amounts on earnings from the highest quarters. This would protect workers from losing access to their paid family and medical leave benefits if, like so many, they had no or low income during the pandemic.

4. Make it easier for workers to receive paid leave by reducing the 7-day waiting period and allowing them to apply for benefits for leave they have already taken.

5. Follow the advice from national experts to allow birth parents to use personal medical leave and parental leave back to back.

Our coalition calls on all DC Councilmembers to speak out against the Mayor’s fiscally irresponsible proposal to raid the paid family and medical leave program, which would harm all working families and hit Black and brown families especially hard. When they amend the city’s fiscal year 2022 budget, the DC Council should restore funding to the popular and effective paid family and medical leave program by rejecting the proposed tax cut, and should expand benefits and implement critical programmatic improvements.

A Note from Springboard Partners: Family Leave Needs Level Playing Field

Councilmember Mary M. Cheh is proposing changes to the DC Universal Paid Leave Act that could exclude small business from the program. Springboard Partners, one of the 8,000 companies that might be excluded under this proposal, wrote this excellent Letter to the Editor that was published by the Northwest Current.