Sponsors (206)
The bill creates a nationwide, SSA‑administered paid family and medical leave program that expands access and protections for caregivers while providing predictable, prorated wage replacement, but it also introduces eligibility limits, privacy and administrative challenges, and new costs and burdens for states, employers, and taxpayers.
Parents and family caregivers (including pregnant women) gain access to a new federally administered paid leave program that provides eligibility determinations and regular monthly payments, improving access to paid caregiving time.
Covered workers (including self-employed and variable-hour workers) receive a clear, tiered partial wage‑replacement formula with minimum and maximum monthly benefit floors and indexing, and payments are prorated to actual caregiving hours.
Workers taking leave are protected from employer retaliation and have job‑restoration and health‑plan continuation rights, preserving employment and benefits while on leave.
Parents and caregivers with long-term needs or intermittent low‑hour caregiving (months with fewer than four caregiving hours) may get sharply limited or zero paid leave because of the cap on benefit duration and the minimum‑hours counting rules.
Workers with recent employment gaps, recent reduced hours, young adults, or some gig and variable‑hour workers may be ineligible or receive reduced benefits because of the 8‑quarter earnings and lookback rules and the method tying regular‑week hours to the month before the benefit period.
Expanding SSA administration, integrating multiple federal and State databases, coordinating legacy programs, and complex eligibility/indexing/reporting requirements creates substantial administrative complexity and risks implementation delays or slower payments to beneficiaries.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a federal paid family and medical leave insurance program administered by SSA with eligibility tests, a tiered benefit formula, state reconciliation grants, and GAO oversight.
Introduced September 16, 2025 by Rosa L. Delauro · Last progress September 16, 2025
Creates a federal paid family and medical leave insurance program run by the Social Security Administration that pays partial wage replacement to eligible workers who take leave to care for themselves or covered family members, or for other qualifying reasons. It sets eligibility and benefit formulas, establishes an SSA Office of Paid Family and Medical Leave to run the program, provides transitional grants to states with existing programs, requires regs and an advisory body, and mandates regular GAO reporting on program performance.