Paid Family Leave update from week of April 2-6

Paid Family Leave (H.107)
The Democratic Caucus focused on Paid Family Leave. The plan would require an individual to be employed with a company for 6 months and be paying into the system before they would be eligible for a benefit. In addition, the State would pay out 90% of a person's wages up to $13.34/hr for 40 hrs. For every dollar over the state would drop the percent. For example, if a person makes $13.34 an hour for 40 hours they would get 90%. If someone makes $16.00 an hour they may only get 85% of their real hourly wage. The cap on lowest amount paid out is 50%.

There is discussion among House members as to why the number $13.34 was used as the cut off for the maximum benefit. $13.34 per hour was determined to be the average for a living wage in Vermont. There was push back from some members concerned with the fact that the living wage number was set so low. There was also concern that setting the limit at $13.34 is low enough to deprive lower income families of a needed benefit.