“If I hadn’t been approved for paid time off my Grandmother wouldn’t have anyone to care for her following her surgery.”
WA employee
As a Paid Family and Medical Leave specialist I hear statements like this on a daily basis and it is a reminder of the impact the program has on the lives and well being of Washingtonians. I am proud to say I was a part of the implementation of one of the best-paid leave programs in the nation. We have had our downfalls, as every start-up does, but in this blog I intend to focus on our successes, our strengths, and what I have learned in the past few months leading up to the launch date of Washington state’s paid leave program.
The journey to paid leave began in 2007 when the first Paid Family and Medical Leave bill passed into the legislature. Unfortunately, there was no funding designated for the program until 8 years later when Governor Inslee received a federal grant to begin designing the program. Throughout 2018 rulemaking was underway, technology for the program was being set up, and the first employees of the customer care team were being trained. Many would say a groundbreaking day for the paid leave team was January 1, 2019, when we began collecting premiums from employers. We were getting money in, and the program was coming to fruition.
Although there are many Washington employers and employees that do not agree with the new ‘tax’ coming out of their paycheck, they will value it when an unforeseen event occurs in life and they need to utilize the paid leave that is available to them. Life’s events are most certainly not always planned. For example, I received a call the other day from an employer calling on behalf of her employee. She was contacting the department on behalf of her employee because he was in no condition to call in on his own as he was in the hospital with severe burns. After discussing eligibility requirements, the employer broke down and said, ‘I can’t believe this is even happening’. She then went on to share that her employee had been in a serious vehicular accident and had lost his young family in the wreck.
Although many people think that this program is welfare or only for the ill-prepared, it is here for everyone especially during life’s unexpected events.
If you are an employee working within the state of Washington seeking paid time off please visit paidleave.wa.gov to see if you qualify.
Washington state's Paid Family and Medical Leave 