Jan. 10—Lawmakers and advocates for a statewide program offering paid family and medical leave for workers hope an overhauled bill in this year’s legislative session will assuage concerns in the business community and gain enough support to cross the finish line.
Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, said at a news conference Wednesday lawmakers are putting together a “stronger bill, better bill,” with changes that could increase its chances of success.
Many small-business owners spoke against a similar Senate proposal that died in a House committee last year. Senate Bill 11 was one of numerous failed efforts dating back about 20 years, largely due to fears that extended paid leave for a worker to care for a family member or spend time with a newborn would disrupt business operations.
Some people also raised concerns about the costs to workers and employers. The plan would require both to pay into a fund that would help cover a portion of a worker’s wages for up to 12 weeks of leave.
Proponents of the 2023 bill vowed to try again.
“We said we would bring the bill back, so here we are,” Stewart said at the state Capitol.
The bill has one key new provision, written in response to a fiscal impact report on SB 11 questioning whether the fund would remain solvent. It would require the Department of Workforce Solutions to issue an actuary study on the plan’s fiscal feasibility by the start of 2025.
Rep. Linda Serrato, D-Santa Fe, a co-sponsor of both SB 11 and the new bill, said in an interview Wednesday lawmakers have responded to many of the business community’s concerns, and she believes the actuary study will be a “big calmer down” measure.
Another new provision would allow spouses of military members to take part in the plan.
Workers would be permitted to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave per year for a range of reasons, such as childbirth, bereavement for the loss of a child, medical care, care of a relative with an illness or a situation involving domestic abuse.
They would earn the state’s minimum wage, $12 per hour, plus about two-thirds of their regular pay over that amount. A person who earns $18 per hour, for instance, would be paid around $16 per hour during the period of leave.
Like the 2023 bill, the new measure would require employers and employees to pay into the fund quarterly through payroll deductions. Employees would pay $272 per year, or $5 for every $1,000 of wages, while employers would pay $218 per year for each employee, based on the mean wage of workers, or $4 for every $1,000 of wages per year.
Employers with less than five employees would not have to pay into the fund, but their employees would — and bosses would have to honor their right to take paid family and medical leave.
The fund would be launched with a $36 million allocation.
If both chambers of the Legislature approve the bill and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signs it into law, employees and employers would begin paying into the fund Jan. 1, 2026, and workers could begin benefitting from it in 2027.
Business owners decried SB 11 last year, arguing they were struggling to recruit workers and had to pay higher wages just to keep people on staff in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Some said they would probably have to close or move to another state if the measure took effect.
Some past critics of a Paid Family and Medical Leave Act said they continue to have concerns but were hesitant to speak in depth about the issue because they had not yet reviewed the new proposal.
Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, offered pointed remarks. She wrote in an email Wednesday her organization remains concerned and opposed to “last session’s mandatory leave proposal.”
Among other concerns, she wrote, “We are a state that prides itself on its authenticity and strong local feel. We love and depend on our small employers, and this highly disruptive, mandatory leave proposal would hurt them most. We cannot overstate just how hard it would be to manage a small business under circumstances where so much leave, under such loose conditions, could be taken with such frequency by its employees.”
Rob Black, CEO of the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce, said he was heartened by the inclusion of an actuary study on the plan. He’s looking forward to reviewing the proposed changes, he said, because “we don’t believe the SB 11 approach makes sense.”
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