CT's Paid Family And Medical Leave Program​ Is Open For Business

CONNECTICUT — The state's new paid family and medical leave program is now accepting applications. Claims may be submitted for qualifying events that are happening on or after Jan. 1.

Under the program, workers will gain access to benefits that allow them to take time off work to care for their own health, a newborn child, or a sick family member. Eligible workers can receive up to 12 weeks of income replacement for qualifying events.

Between 1,000-1,500 people are expected to apply daily during the early days of the program.

Qualifying reasons to submit a claim include:

• Leave for one's own serious health condition, including pregnancy and serving as an organ donor
• Leave to care for a family member experiencing a serious health condition
• Bonding with a new child that has entered a worker's home through birth, adoption, or foster care
• Leave to address issues arising from family violence
• Leave to address issues arising from a parent, child, or spouse’s military deployment
• Leave to care for a family member injured during active duty in the U.S. military

The amount of income replacement will vary based on a worker's earnings and is capped at 60 times the state minimum wage. Sixty times the minimum wage will be equal to $780 weekly in January 2022, increase to $840 on July 1, 2022, and $900 on June 1, 2023. The combination of employer-provided benefits and benefits received under the paid leave program cannot exceed 100 percent of a worker's normal weekly earnings.

"Supporting the workers of our state will strengthen our economic footing and make Connecticut a stronger place to live, work, and do business," Gov. Ned Lamont said. "With the launch of this program, workers who need to take time off for a new baby or to recover from an illness are not punished financially, and businesses do not risk losing good workers during those emergencies.

Connecticut is the eighth state in the nation to enact a paid family and medical leave program. Only 13 percent of private-sector workers in the United States have access to paid family and medical leave, according to Lamont's Office.

House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora called Lamont's PFMLA "victory lap" premature, arriving upstream of any claim being paid out.

"Instead, let’s see what those expected growing pains are and, more important, what the program’s impact will be on businesses that already face struggles in finding people to fill open jobs," said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. "For the sake of our state and economy, and at a time when money doesn’t go as far as we’d all like it to, I hope the next phase of this program that requires workers to pay into it will go as smoothly as Democrats think it will."

Employers are prohibited from retaliating against workers for requesting, applying for, or using paid family and medical leave for which they are eligible.

The PFMLA does not apply to federal employees, state and municipal employees who are members of unions, employees of local and regional boards of education, or employees of non-public elementary and secondary schools.