We wanted to make you aware of a recent development regarding a delay in Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave (MA PFML) contributions. On Tuesday, Governor Baker, Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Robert DeLeo announced a three-month delay in the roll out of this new legislation in response to implementation delay requests from leaders in business and government.
What this means:
- The law is still scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2021.
- The original start date for employers to begin contributing to the Family and Employment Security Trust Fund (July 1, 2019) has been delayed to October 1, 2019.
- Because of the funding delay, the original tax, 0.63% of employees’ wages, is expected to increase to 0.75% in October. Beginning in 2021, this rate is subject to annual review and possible readjustment to keep up with trust fund spending.
- The legislature still needs to officially vote to adopt this decision, but it is expected to pass easily.
The good news it that the delay allows the Department of Family and Medical Leave to work out many of the unanswered questions still looming, and provides employers with some breathing room to continue to prepare for all the complexities of this new legislation.
Please feel free to reach out to any member of the
Sullivan Benefits team with your questions. In the meantime, we will continue to monitor and provide updates as we learn more.
