New York Does Good for Moms and Dads, Institutes Seriously Comprehensive Paid-Leave Policy

Both mothers and fathers will be entitled to 12 weeks of paid time off work. 

By Mattie Kahn
Apr 1, 2016 - ELLE

A day before it could be written off as a cruel April Fool's joke, New York State voted on and passed a trailblazing new budget deal. 

Sandwiched between such worthy stipulations as a raised minimum wage of $15, the finalized bill further provides for the most comprehensive and impressive paid-leave plan nationwide. (It is only the fifth state to institute paid-leave legislation, following California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington.) The law mandates that men and women receive equal time to bond with a new child, giving them both up to 12 weeks of paid time off work. It further stipulates that workers be allowed to take the same number of weeks to care for a sick loved one. 

And this is the real news: Everyone is entitled to it—no matter the size of your workplace, no matter whether you have a full-time or part-time position. As soon as you've been an employee for at least six months, this time is yours (and your partner's) to take. Better yet, the new law ensures that your job will be there when you get back. Until now, only workers who have met certain requirements at companies that employ more than 50 people have been given that protection. Thanks to this bill, that's one less crisis for new moms and dads to worry about. 

With a statewide $15 min wage and nation’s only 12-week paid family leave program, we will prove that the economy can & should work for all.

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 1, 2016

The bill replaces the much less thorough Family and Medical Leave Act, which applied only in limited cases and did not insist on any minimum paid time off. Lawmakers have decided to kick it off in 2018 at which point it will be implemented over the course of four years. When all is said and done, new parents will take home a maximum of two-thirds of the median worker salary while on leave. It might be less than what they currently make, but, as Rebecca Traister points out, it's better than nada. And it's especially good for low-wage workers. 

Since money, we know, does not grow on trees, your paycheck will fund your time off. Companies will deducted about a dollar per week from employee salaries to pay for the policy. Even so, it's obvious that this is a very, very, very big (budget) deal.