AB 894

Under current law, an employer, including the state, employing at least 50

individuals on a permanent basis in this state (employer) must permit an employee

who has been employed by the employer for more than 52 consecutive weeks and who

has worked for the employer for at least 1,000 hours during the preceding 52-week

period (employee) to take six weeks of family leave in a 12-month period. Family

leave may be taken for the birth or adoptive placement of a new child or to care for

a child, spouse, domestic partner, or parent who has a serious health condition. An

employee is not entitled to receive wages or salary while taking family leave, but may

substitute, for portions of family leave, other types of paid or unpaid leave provided

by the employer.

This bill creates a family leave benefits program, to be administered by the

Department of Workforce Development (DWD), under which an employee who is on

family leave is eligible to receive family leave benefits from the family leave benefits

trust fund created under the bill (fund) in the amount of two-thirds of the employee's

average weekly earnings, subject to a maximum of 53 percent of the state's average

weekly earnings as of June 30 of the previous year, or, for a fractional week,

one-seventh of the employee's weekly benefit amount multiplied by the number of

days of family leave taken that week.

Under the bill, family leave benefits are payable beginning on the first day of

the second week of family leave and are payable for each subsequent day of family

leave. If, however, family leave benefits become payable on any day after the first

three weeks of an employee's family leave, family leave benefits are also payable with

respect to the first week of the employee's family leave. No family leave benefits are

payable for any period of family leave in which the employee is substituting paid or

unpaid leave of any other type provided by the employer or in which the employee

is receiving unemployment benefits or worker's compensation benefits.

The bill requires each employee to contribute to the fund an amount equal to

0.09 percent of the employee's wages in 2015, an amount equal to 0.12 percent of the

employee's wages in 2016, and, in 2017 and subsequent years, a percentage of the

employee's wages, as determined by DWD, that is sufficient to obtain a total

contribution to the fund from all employees equal to 125 percent of the family leave

benefits paid during the preceding year plus 100 percent of the cost of administering

the payment of those benefits during the preceding year, less the balance in the fund

as of December 31 of the preceding year. The bill requires DWD to collect those

contributions from the employee's employer in the same manner as DWD collects

contributions to the unemployment reserve fund under current law.

Finally, the bill permits an employee whose claim for family leave benefits is

denied by DWD to request a hearing on the denial and requires DWD to process the

request for a hearing in the same manner that requests for hearing on

unemployment insurance claims are processed under current law. If DWD pays