California Boosts Paid Family Leave Benefits

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at Shasta College on Dec. 16. Travis Gillmore/The Epoch Times

California workers who take time off to care for themselves after childbirth or for other issues are receiving more money this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Jan. 2.

Starting New Year’s Day, the state increased paid family leave and disability benefits to historic levels, giving those who earn less than $63,000 a year up to 90 percent of their regular wages while they are on leave.

Workers earning above that amount will get up to 70 percent of their wages.

The increase applies to new claims filed on or after Jan. 1, according to the governor’s office.

“Expanded paid family leave benefits are about making it easier for Californians to care for themselves, bond with a new child, and care for their families without worrying about how they’ll pay the bills,” Newsom said in a statement Thursday.

According to the governor, the increase is meant to create a more affordable California.

The governor also posted a video on X Wednesday, explaining the new benefit amounts.

“This is good for the economy, it’s good for workers,” Newsom said in the video. “Making rent shouldn’t mean missing out on your kid growing up.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks in Colusa County on Dec. 10. Newsom announced the state's increase in disability and family leave payments on Jan. 2. Travis Gillmore/The Epoch Times

Before this year, family leave programs paid workers 60 percent to 70 percent of wages.

In 2022, state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo of Los Angeles said the existing rate was too low and authored Senate Bill 951 to boost the benefits.

“State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave wage replacement rates both provide too low of a reimbursement rate and too strictly limit who can receive the relative higher rate,” Durazo wrote in a legislative analysis of the bill.

At the time, only workers making less than about $27,000 each year received a higher wage replacement of 70 percent, which was about $365 per week.

There was no opposition to the increase at the time of the bill’s passage.

Money from disability insurance, which is paid for a maximum of 52 weeks, and the family leave program, paid for eight weeks, supports about 18 million workers in California, according to the governor’s office.

The programs are funded by deductions from workers’ paychecks.

Jenya Cassidy, director of the nonprofit California Work & Family Coalition, which advocates for paid leave for all, said she was proud to help bring about the change.

The bill is expected to “make a huge difference to California parents and caregivers who will now be able to afford to take the time to bond with their children, care for their family members, or to heal from their own serious health condition,” Cassidy said Thursday in a release by the California Employment Development Department, the state agency that provides disability and paid family leave benefits.