Washington, DC – The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) is working with lawmakers to develop the Protecting Worker Paychecks and Family Choice Act (the Act).
ERIC’s guidance focuses on ensuring that the legislation addresses the harmful patchwork of conflicting state and local paid leave rules multistate employers must navigate. To address this, ERIC requests lawmakers add a section that would exempt employers that already provide paid leave benefits from complying with these mandates.
“Millions of Americans enjoy generous paid leave policies from their employer and want to continue with these benefits, as often they exceed the amount provided by state and local programs. A safe harbor would exempt employers who already provide paid family and medical leave benefits from the requirements of state and local mandates,” said Aliya Robinson, Senior Vice President of Retirement and Compensation Policy.
Under ERIC’s suggested safe harbor, any employer that provides paid family and medical leave benefits equal to those laid out in the Act, or an equivalent program determined by the Secretary of Labor, would be exempt from the requirements of any state or local paid leave program.
“ERIC will continue to support the ability of employers to provide generous employer-funded paid leave benefits to their nationwide workforce by working with lawmakers to ensure that employers can use a single standard for paid leave rules,” said Robinson.
For more information on the many compliance burdens that multistate employers face in offering paid leave benefits, read ERIC’s white paper, Paying the Way: Large Employers and the State Paid Leave Patchwork.
Click here to read ERIC’s comments.