Paid leave for employees is a hot issue. President Obama mentioned it in his State of the Union address, "Today, we're the only advanced country on Earth that doesn't guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers. Forty-three million workers have no paid sick leave." The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) maintains a web page with developments in the paid leave area. The Wage Standards Division is currently tracking 8 paid leave bills this session.
Who pays for the benefits?
Here in Hawaii there are several approaches to achieving paid leave benefits in current measures at the 28th Hawaii State Legislature. Who pays for the benefits is one big difference in the measures. Four of the measures have employer paid benefits. Four have employee funded benefits.
Employer paid benefits
When the employer pays for the benefits the measures are couched as sick leave and placed in the Wage and Hour Law, Chapter 387, Hawaii Revised Statutes, or a new chapter, and include using the leave for the care of family member (HB 9, SB 129 SB 1025, SB1047).
The employer funded measures earn paid leave on a per hour basis. Three have provisions earning 1 hour per 30 hours worked,( HB 9, SB 1025, SB1047) while one is 1 hour per 40 hrs worked (SB 129), with limits of 40 or 56 hours per year.
Three of the employer funded measures have retaliatory protection (SB 129 SB 1025, SB1047).
Employee funded benefits
When the employee pays a percentage of their wages into a trust fund the focus is on paid family leave. (HB496, HB535, SB965, HB1049). The employee trust fund approach is placed in the Hawaii Family Leave Law, Chapter 398, Hawaii Revised Statutes.
The trust fund approach also amends the application of the Hawaii Family Leave Law from employers with 100 employers to all employers with at least one employee. This adjustment applies to the application of the protected leave, as well as any paid leave added to the law in the proposed legislation.
The eligibility of the employee trust fund bills look to Chapter 398, HRS, which currently requires employees to have worked for 6 months before they are eligible to be protected under Hawaii Family Leave Law. (See 398-1, HRS, definition of "employee", and HAR 12-27-5)
What's next?
So far, three of these measures have been heard in committee. SB 129, an employer paid benefit, was heard by the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee on Thursday, January 29, (testimony available here) and decision making was deferred to February 17. Today, on Tuesday, February 3, the House Committee on Labor and Public Employment heard HB496 and HB535, employee funded benefits, (testimony available here and here) and deferred both for decision making until Friday, February 6. Stay tuned.
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