Family Leave Bill Advances After Pushback From Business

COLORADO – By John Herrick for The Colorado Independent. Zoey Palmer said she wanted to spend more time caring for her stepmother after she underwent open-heart surgery.

But the 31-year-old from Denver couldn’t take time off from her job at a cafe. She had rent to pay, she said.

Palmer had already lost her mother to ALS, a deadly neurodegenerative disease, and was worried she was going to lose another parent while she was recovering in the hospital.

“She didn’t have anybody there to advocate for her. She didn’t have anybody there to help her get food that she could actually keep down,” Palmer told The Colorado Independent.

Palmer was among the dozens that came to the state Capitol on Tuesday to rally in support of a bill that would create a state-run paid family and medical leave insurance program for all private-sector employees. This kind of program would have allowed her to take paid time off.

The bill, SB-188, dubbed the FAMLI Act, short for Family and Medical Leave Insurance, would provide up to 12 weeks of a partial wage replacement for certain employees while they care for their children, parents or themselves. Workers would begin paying premiums in 2023 with benefits rolling out in 2024.

The high-priority legislation, which many Democrats campaigned on last year, has been in a holding pattern for weeks after business groups, including the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, which represents hundreds of businesses, came out strongly against it. The legislation would require employers to share the cost of the benefits with their employees. The family leave program would cost an estimated $1 billion per year.

The Senate Finance Committee had tabled a final vote while supporters rewrote the legislation. On Tuesday, the committee approved 16 amendments that narrowed the scope of the program and reduced costs for businesses, including allowing some businesses to opt out. It passed the bill 4-3 along party lines. The measure now heads to the Appropriations Committee before it goes to the full Senate.

This year marks lawmakers’ fifth attempt at passing a paid family leave program, and, supporters say they are confident the bill will pass.

“We are going to get it over the finish line,” said Sen. Faith Winter, a Democrat from Westminster who is sponsoring the bill, at a rally outside the state Capitol.

READ MORE at The Colorado Independent