Advocates for statewide paid family and medical leave received a boost Tuesday with the announcement of a federal grant to study the concept.
The Vermont Commission on Women will receive $173,794 to “analyze possible administrative structures, including both public and private models” for paid leave, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Vermont was one of six states – along with New York City and Montgomery County, Maryland – to receive a total of $1.55 million in grants to research paid-leave programs.
There are federal and state programs offering time off for family or medical issues, but critics point out that the leave is unpaid. Nationwide, only 12 percent of all workers in the private sector have access to paid family leave via plans offered by their employers, the Department of Labor reports.
In Vermont, a legislative committee in 2014 proposed creation of a new, publicly administered medical and family leave program that would offer up to six weeks’ leave in any one-year period. Beneficiaries would receive 100 percent of their pay, and the program would be employee-funded via a new income tax.
Also, a Burlington lawmaker this year introduced a bill in the House calling for employee-funded paid family leave. The bill did not move from committee.
Currently, the Main Street Alliance of Vermont and the Vermont Commission on Women are hosting a series of public forums on the possibility of enacting a paid-leave program in the state. Meetings have been held in Manchester, Brattleboro and St. Albans; still to come are sessions scheduled for Oct. 7 in Burlington and Oct. 14 in Woodstock.
Cary Brown, Vermont Commission on Women executive director, said she is “thrilled that we’ve gotten this grant.”
The federal money will fund a year-long study of paid leave concepts. The commission will get help from research firms and a stakeholder committee while seeking input from the public and from employers, Brown said.
A detailed cost-benefit analysis will be part of the mix.
“We’re going to be able to do a really comprehensive study on the feasibility of paid family leave in Vermont,” Brown said. “We’ll be able to look at a couple of different models including employee-funded and a combination of employer- and employee-funded.”
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