Nathaniel M. Glasser, M. Carter DeLorme, Ann Knuckles Mahoney, Eric I. Emanuelson, Jr., and Catherine Kang, attorneys in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management Briefing, co-authored an article in the Employee Relations Law Journal, titled, “Maryland Legislature Overrides Veto to Enact Paid Family and Medical Leave Program.”
Following is an excerpt (see below to download the full version in PDF format):
The Maryland Legislature has voted to overrule Governor Larry Hogan’s veto and has enacted the Time to Care Act of 2022 (Senate Bill 275) (the “Act”), which establishes the Maryland Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program (the “Program”). The Act creates a right to paid family and medical leave benefits for up to 12 or 24 weeks, depending on the type of leave, beginning on January 1, 2025.
The Program marks Maryland as the 10th state (plus the District of Columbia) to enact a paid family and medical leave law. Not only will the Program offer paid leave benefits, it will expand the scope of who is eligible for leave benefits by covering certain employees who are ineligible for leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”). Contributions to the Program, which will be funded by both employers and employees, will begin on October 1, 2023.
REASONS FOR AND AMOUNT OF LEAVE
The Program provides paid leave for five different reasons:
- To care for a newborn child or a child newly placed for adoption, foster care, or kinship care within the first year or the birth, adoption, or placement;
- To care for a family member with a serious health condition;
- To attend to the employee’s own serious health condition that prevents the employee from performing the functions of the employee’s position;
- To care for a military servicemember with a serious health condition resulting from military service who is the employee’s next of kin; or
- For a qualifying exigency due to the deployment of a family member for military service.
An employee is ordinarily entitled to a total of 12 weeks of job-protected leave in any one-year period; however, an employee can receive an additional 12 weeks, for a total of up to 24 weeks in any one-year period, if the employee is eligible to take both parental leave and leave for the employee’s own serious health condition.
Leave may be taken all at once or intermittently, although an employee may not take intermittent leave in increments of less than four hours.
This article originally appeared as an Epstein Becker Green Insight in May 2022.
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