EXPAND PAID FAMILY LEAVE:

NY State must make its paid family leave policy universal to ensure that new parents are able to take time off to care for their newly born or adopted children.While currently the strongest in the US, NY’s paid family leave does not cover everyone, and many families are left behind under the current policy. For example, licensed ministers, priests or rabbis, people engaged in a professional or teaching capacity for a not-for-profit, and those who work in service as a golf caddy are excluded. 

Public employers may voluntarily opt into paid family leave but are not obligated to, which means New Yorkers who work for the state or another public institution may end up without paid family leave coverage when giving birth to or adopting a child. 

Other New Yorkers who have recently begun a new job are also excluded from paid family leave under the current law. Employees who work a regular schedule of 20 or more hours per week are eligible only after 26 consecutive weeks of employment, and employees who work less than 20 hours per week are eligible after working 175 days. In practice, this means that poor and working class New Yorkers and New Yorkers who are dealing with job insecurity are most likely to not get paid time off after having or adopting a new baby. 

New Yorkers need and deserve a universal leave policy that is actually universal, not one that excludes people who have recently begun a new job, who work for a public institution, or who are a member of other currently excluded categories. 

LEGISLATIVE ACTION:

  • Email your State Senator, Assembly Member to ask them to introduce legislation that would modify NY’s current paid family leave act to include all workers, including those who recently began new jobs and who are employed in the public sector. 

  • Email Governor Cuomo and ask him to support legislation that would modify NY’s current paid family leave act to include all workers, including those who recently began new jobs and who are employed in the public sector. 

  • Email your City Council Member to sponsor a resolution to ask the State legislature to modify NY’s current paid family leave act to include all workers, including those who recently began new jobs and who are employed in the public sector.